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1 



A 



The Political Future of India 



OTHER BOOKS BY LAJPAT RAI 



YOUNG INDIA 

An Interpretation and a History of the 

Nationalist Movement from Within 

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ENGLAND'S DEBT TO INDIA 

A Historical Narrative of Britain's 

Fiscal Policy in India 

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THE ARYA SAMAJ 

An Account of its Origins, Doctrines 

and Activities 

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OBTAINABLE FROM ALL BOOKSELLERS 



The 
Political Future of India 

by 
Lajpat Rai,^^*^ 




NEW YORK 

B. W. HUEBSCH 

MCMXIX 






COPYRIGHT, I919, BY B. W. HUEBSCH 
PRINTED IN U.S.A. 



NOV 17 19/9 



©CI.A5357a7 



TO MY FRIEND 
COLONEL JOSIAH WEDGWOOD, M. P., D. S. O. 



PREFACE 

My book, Young India, was written during the 
first year of the war and was finally revised and sent 
to the press before the war was two years old. It 
concluded with the following observation: 

"The Indians are a chivalrous people; they will 
not disturb England as long as she is engaged with 
Germany. The struggle after the war might, however, 
be even more bitter and sustained." 

The events that have happened since have amply 
justified the above conclusion. India not only re- 
frained from disturbing England while she was engaged 
in war with Germany, but actively helped in defeating 
Germany and winning the war. She raised an army 
of over a million combatants and supplied a large 
number of war workers, and made huge contributions 
in money and materials. She denied herself the neces- 
sities of life in order to feed and equip the armies in 
the field though within the last months of the war, 
when scarcity and epidemic overtook her, she lost 
six millions of her sons and daughters from one disease 
alone — influenza. This was more than chivalry. 
This was self-effacement in the interests of an Empire 
which, in the past, had treated her children as helots. 
How much of this effort was voluntary and how 
much of it was forced it is difficult to appraise. Great 
Britain, however, has unequivocally accepted it as 
voluntary and has attributed it to India's satisfaction 



Vi PREFACE 

with her rule. That India was not satisfied with her 
rule she has spared no pains to impress upon the 
British people as well as the rest of the world. Read- 
ing between the lines of the report of the Secretary of 
State for India and the Viceroy has established the 
fact of that dissatisfaction beyond the possibility of 
doubt, but if any doubt still remained it has been 
dispelled by the writings and utterances of her repre- 
sentative spokesman in India, in Great Britain and 
abroad. The prince and the peasant, the landlord and 
the ryot, the professor and the student, the politician 
and the layman — all have spoken. They differ 
in their estimates of the ''blessings" of British rule, 
they differ in the manner of their profession of loyalty 
to the British Empire, they sometimes differ in shap- 
ing their schemes for the future Government of India 
but they are all agreed: 

(i) That the present constitution of the Govern- 
ment of India is viciously autocratic, bureaucratic, 
antiquated and unsatisfying. 

(2) That India has, in the past, been governed 
more in the interests of, and by the British merchant 
and the British aristocrat than in the interests of her 
own peoples. 

(3) That the neglect of India's education and in- 
dustries has been culpably tragic and 

(4) That the only real and effectual remedy is to 
introduce an element of responsibility in the Govern- 
ment of India. 

In the report of the Secretary of State and the 
Viceroy, so often quoted and referred to in these 
pages, the truth of (i), (3), and (4) is substantially 
admitted and point (2) indirectly conceded. In the 



PREFACE Vll 

following pages an attempt is made to prove this 
by extracts from the report itself. Ever since the 
report was published in July, 1918, India has been in 
a state of ferment, — a ferment of enthusiasm and 
criticism, of hope and disappointment. While the 
country has freely acknowledged the unique value of 
the report, the politicians have differed in their esti- 
mates of the value of the scheme embodied therein. 
Yet there is a complete unanimity on one point, that 
nothing less than what is planned in the report will 
be accepted, even as the first step towards eventual 
complete responsible Government. This is the mini- 
mum. Even the ultra-moderates have expressed 
themselves quite strongly on that point. Speaking 
at the Conference of the Moderates held at Bombay 
on November i, 191 8, the President, Mr. Surendranath 
Banerjea, is reported to have said: "our creed is co- 
operation with the Government wherever practicable, 
and opposition to its policy and measures when the 
supreme interests of the mother-land require it. . . . 
I have a word to say ... to the British Government. 
I have a warning note to sound. ... If the enactment 
of the Reform proposals is unduly postponed, if they 
are whittled down in any way . . . there will be 
grave public discontent and agitation." A little 
further in the same speech he asked if "by the un- 
wisdom of our rulers" India was "to be converted 
into a greater Ireland." In less than six months 
from the date of this pronouncement, the rulers of 
India gave ample proof of their "unwisdom" by 
actually converting India into a "greater Ireland" 
and in establishing the absolute correctness of the 
prognostication made by the present writer in the 



Viii PREFACE 

concluding sentence of his book Young India. The 
manifesto of the Moderate Party issued over the 
signatures of the Moderate leaders all over the country 
contained the following warning: ''We must equally 
protest against every attempt, by whomever made 
and in whatever manner, at any mutilation of the 
Montagu-Chelmsford proposals. We are constrained 
to utter a grave warning against the inevitable dis- 
astrous effects of such a grievous mistake on the 
future relations of the British Government and the 
Indian people which will result in discontent and agita- 
tion followed by repression on the one side and suf- 
fering on the other side." Little did they know when 
they uttered the warning that repression would come 
even before the Reform Scheme was discussed in 
Parliament and "mutilated" there. British rule in 
Ireland has been for the last twenty years a wearisome 
record of mixed concessions and coercions. Every 
time a concession was made it was either preceded 
or accompanied by strong doses of coercion. One 
would have thought that British statesmen were wiser 
by their experience of Ireland, but it seems that they 
have learnt nothing and that they have no intention 
of doing in India anything different from what they 
have been doing in Ireland. The history of British 
statesmanship in relation to Irish affairs is repeating 
itself almost item by item in India. 

Lord Morley's reforms were both preceded and 
followed by strong measures of repression and sup- 
pression. As if to prove that British statesmanship 
can never in this respect set aside precedent even for 
once, Mr. Montagu's proposals have been followed 
by a measure of coercion unique even for India. Mr. 



PREFACE IX 

Montagu's proposals for the reconstruction of Govern- 
ment in India are yet in the air. They are being 
criticised and examined minutely by numerous British 
agencies both in India and in England as to how and 
in what respects they can be made innocuous. Cer- 
tain other reforms promised by the report, such as the 
scheme for Local Self Government and the policy 
in relation to the Arms Act, have already been dis- 
posed of in the usual masterly way of giving with one 
hand and taking back with the other. Similarly the 
*' great" scheme of opening the commissioned ranks 
of the Army to the native Indians has practically 
(for the present at least) ended in fiasco. But the 
policy underlying the Rowlatt laws has surpassed all. 
In the chapters of this book dealing with the Revo- 
lutionary movement the reader will find a genesis 
of the Rowlatt laws of coercion. 

On the sixteenth of January in the Gazette of India 
was published a draft of two bills that were proposed 
to be brought before the Legislative Council of India 
(which has a standing majority of Government offi- 
cials). These bills were to give effect to the recommend- 
ations of the committee presided over by Mr. Justice 
Rowlatt of the High Court of England, for the preven- 
tion, detection and punishment of sedition in India. 
Their introduction into the Legislative Council was at 
once protested against by all classes of Indians with a 
unanimity never before witnessed in the history of 
India. All sections of the great Indian population 
from the Prince to the peasant, including all races, 
religions, sects, castes, creeds and professions joined 
in the protest. Hindus, Mohammedans, Indian Chris- 
tians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsees — all stood up, to a 



X PREFACE 

man, to oppose the measure. All the political parties, 
Conservatives, Liberals, Moderates and Extremists 
expressed themselves against it. The measure was 
opposed by all the non-official Indian members of the 
Legislative Council. All methods of agitation were 
resorted to in order to make the opinion of the country 
known to the Government and to warn the latter 
against the danger of defying the united will of the 
people. The press, the pulpit and the platform all 
joined in denouncing the measures, meetings of protest 
were held in all parts of the country and resolutions 
wired to the Government. A few days before the 
final meeting at which these bills were to be passed 
into law a number of prominent citizens, male and 
female, pledged themselves to passive resistance in 
case the measures were enacted. The passive resist- 
ance movement was inaugurated and led by Mr. 
M. K. Gandhi, a man of saintly character, universally 
respected and revered in India, the same who stood 
for the Government during the war and rendered 
material help in recruiting soldiers, raising loans and 
procuring other help for its prosecution. The follow- 
ing is the text of the pledge that was signed by hundreds 
and thousands of Indians belonging to all races and 
reHgions and haiHng from all parts of the continent: 

"Being conscientiously of opinion that the bills 
known as the Indian Criminal Law (Amendment) 
Bill No. I of 1919 and No. 2 of 1919 are unjust, sub- 
versive of the principle of liberty and justice and de- 
structive of the elementary rights of individuals 
on which the safety of the community as a whole 
and the State itself is based, we solemnly affirm that, 
in the event of these bills becoming law, we shall 
refuse civilly to obey these laws and such other laws 



PREFACE XI 

as a committee to be hereafter appointed may think 
fit and we further affirm that in this struggle we will 
faithfully follow truth and refrain from violence of 
life, person or property." 

The passive resistance movement was not approved 
by the country as a whole, and influential voices were 
raised against it even in its early stages but the fact 
that Mr. Gandhi had taken the responsibility of 
initiating and leading it and that many women had 
signed the pledge should have opened the eyes of the 
Government as to the intensity of the feeling behind 
it. Besides this threat of passive resistance the 
Indian members of the Council showed their solid 
opposition to the measure by using all the historic 
obstructive methods so well known to the student of 
Parliamentary debates in the House of Commons as 
associated with the Irish Nationalist party under the 
leadership of Parnell. The debates in the Legislative 
Council of India do not ordinarily last for more than 
one day, consisting, at the most, of eight hours. The 
debate on this bill lasted for three days; one sitting 
lasted "from ii o'clock in the morning . . . until 
nearly half past one the following day with adjourn- 
ments for luncheon and dinner." The officials were 
determined to pass the bill at that sitting and so they 
refused to rise until the amendments on the agenda 
had been disposed of and the bill passed into law. The 
non-officials proposed no less than i6o amendments 
but by the application of closure methods they were 
all disposed of in three days and the bill passed (on the 
1 8th of March). The Government made a few minor 
concessions but on the whole the bill remained as it 
had been drafted, a monument of Governmental 



Xii PREFACE 

shortsightedness and stupidity. The consideration of 
the other bill was postponed. As soon as the news 
reached Bombay that the first bill had become law 
"the market was closed as a protest" and posters 
in English and the vernacular, were displayed through- 
out the city urging the non-payment of taxes and 
asking the people to resist the order of a tyrannical 
Government." (London Times, April 2.) Similar 
manifestations of anger were made throughout the 
country and the movement for passive resistance was 
definitely inaugurated. It spread like wild fire. 
Thousands joined it and the relations between the 
people and the Government became very strained. 
However, no violence was resorted to, nor was any 
harm done to Ufe and property. Several members of 
the Legislative Council resigned their ofiices. One of 
them a Mohammedan leader, wrote the following letter 
to His Excellency the Viceroy: 

*'Your Excellency, the passing of the Rowlatt Bill 
by the Government of India and the assent given to 
it by your Excellency as Governor- General against 
the will of the people has severely shaken the trust 
reposed by them in British justice. Further, it has 
clearly demonstrated the constitution of the Imperial 
Legislative Council which is a legislature but in name, 
a machine propelled by a foreign executive. Neither 
the unanimous opinion of the non-ofiicial Indian mem- 
bers, nor the entire public opinion and feeling outside 
has met with the least respect. The Government of 
India and your Excellency, however, have thought 
it fit to place on the statute-book a measure admittedly 
obnoxious and decidedly coercive at a time of peace, 
thereby substituting executive for judicial discretion. 
Besides, by passing this Bill, your Excellency's Gov- 
ernment have actively negatived every argument they 



PREFACE XIU 

advanced but a year ago when they appealed to India 
for help at the War Conference, and have ruthlessly 
trampled upon the principles for which Great Britain 
avowedly fought the war. 

''The fundamental principles of justice have been 
uprooted and the constitutional rights of the people 
have been violated, at a time when there is no real 
danger to the state, by an overfearful and incompetent 
bureaucracy which is neither responsible to the people, 
nor in touch with real public opinion and their whole 
plea is that 'powers when they are assumed will not be 
abused.' 

"I, therefore, as a protest against the passing of the 
Bill and the manner in which it was passed, tender 
my resignation as a member of the Imperial Legis- 
lative Council, for I feel that, under the prevailing 
conditions, I can be of no use to my people in the 
Council, nor, consistently with one's self respect, is 
cooperation possible with a Government that shows 
such utter disregard for the opinion of the representa- 
tives of the people in the Council Chamber and the 
feelings and sentiments of the people outside. 

"In my opinion, a Government that passes or sanc- 
tions such law in times of peace forfeits its claim to be 
called a civilized Government and I still hope that 
the Secretary of State for India, Mr. Montagu, will 
advise his Majesty to signify his disallowance to this 
Black Act. 

"Yours truly, 

"M. A. Jinnah.'^ 

The leaders of the passive resistance movement de- 
clared 30th March as "the National protest day." 
The protest was to be made by all the traditional 
methods known to India for ages, viz., by fasting, 
stopping business, praying, and meeting in congre- 
gations in their respective places of worship. The 
only Western method contemplated was passing 



xiv PREFACE 

resolutions and sending telegrams to the authorities 
in India and England. The 30th of March was thus 
observed as a national protest day throughout India 
and there was only one clash between the people and 
the Government, viz., at Delhi, the national capital. 

Delhi has been the national capital of India from 
times immemorial. It was the chief capital city of 
the Moguls. It has a mixed population of Hindus 
and Mohammedans, almost evenly divided. The 
European population there is not very large. There 
is a British garrison stationed in the Mogul fort. 
Besides being the capital of British India, Delhi is 
a very important trade center and the terminus of 
several railway lines. All business was stopped, 
shops closed and the city gave an appearance of a 
general strike. A mass meeting attended by 40,000 
people, according to British estimates, and presided 
over by a religious ascetic, passed resolutions of pro- 
test and cabled them to the Secretary of State for 
India in London. It was at Delhi and on this day as 
already stated that the first clash occurred between the 
authorities and the people. It is immaterial how it 
came about but it may be noted that rifles and machine 
guns were freely used in dispersing the mobs at the 
railway station and other places. According to 
ofiScial estimates fourteen persons were killed and 
about sixty wounded. The non-official estimates 
give larger figures. Evidently nothing serious hap- 
pened between March 30th and April 6th which last 
was observed as a day of mourning throughout British 
India from Peshawar to Cape Comorin and from Cal- 
cutta to Karachi and Bombay. People held meetings, 
made speeches, marched in processions, took pledges 



PREFACE XV 

of passive resistance, closed shops, suspended business, 
bathed in the sea, joined in prayer and fasted. No 
violence of any kind was reported. In the words of 
a correspondent of the London Times, *'the distin- 
guishing feature of many of these demonstrations 
[meaning thereby passive resistance demonstrations] 
made on the 6th of April, specially at Delhi, Agra, 
Bombay and Calcutta, is the Hindu and Moslem 
fraternization, Hindus being freely admitted to the 
mosques, on occasions occupying the Mihrab (the 
niche indicating the direction of Mecca)." In a 
message dated April 7 th the same correspondent 
cabled ''an unprecedented event in the shape of a 
joint Moslem-Hindu service at the famous Juma 
Masjed at Delhi, at which a Hindu ^ delivered a ser- 
mon." The Juma Masjed is one of the jewels of 
Mogul architecture and probably the biggest mosque 
in India. 

On April 9th Sir Michael O'Dwyer, the Lieutenant 
Governor of the Punjab, dwelt with pride on the fact 
that the province ruled by him with an iron hand 
for the last five years "had raised 360,000 combatants 
during the war." "Dealing with the political situ- 
ation he declared that the Government of the province 
was determined that public order which was main- 
tained during the war, should not be disturbed during 
peace. Action had therefore been taken under the 
Defence Act against certain individuals who were 
openly endeavoring to arouse public feeling against 
the Government." It was this action, viz., the sum- 

* This Hindu happened to be the leader of a section of the Arya 
Samaj — an organization known for its bitter attitude towards 
Mohammedanism. 



TVl 



PREFACE 



mary arrest of leaders at Amritsar and the order of 
prohibition against Mr. Gandhi's contemplated visit 
to the Punjab, that set fire to the accumulated maga- 
zine. It exasperated the people and in a moment 
of despair the intense strain of the last few weeks 
found relief in attacks on Government buildings and 
stray persons of European extraction. What actually 
happened in different places no one can definitely 
tell just at this stage but it is clear that at places so 
widely distant as Amritsar and Lahore in the Punjab 
and Viramgam in the Gujerat (Western Presidency) 
railway stations, telegraph offices and some other 
public buildings were burned, railway traffic inter- 
rupted, tram cars stopped and some Europeans killed 
and attacked. At Amritsar three banks were burnt 
down and their managers killed. Telegraphing on 
April 15 th and again on the i6th of April, the corre- 
spondent of the London Times remarked that "the 
Punjab continued to be the principal seat of trouble" 
which was probably due to the extremely brutal 
methods which the Punjab Government had fol- 
lowed in repressing and suppressing not only the 
present 'riots' but also all kinds of political activity 
in the preceding six years. It appears that in about 
a week's time almost the whole province was ablaze. 
The Government used machine guns in dispersing 
meetings, showered bombs from aeroplanes and de- 
clared martial law in several towns, extended the 
seditious meetings prevention Act and other emer- 
gency laws in districts, marched flying military columns 
from one end to the other, accompanied by travelling 
courts martial to try and punish on the spot all ar- 
rested for offences committed in connection with the 



PREFACE Xvii 

passive resistence movement. Leaders were arrested 
and deported without trial of any kind; papers were 
suppressed and all kinds of demonstrations prohibited. 
Among the leaders arrested are the names of some of 
the most conservative and moderate of the Punjab public 
men — men whose whole life is opposed to extremism of 
any kind. Those men were subjected to various indig- 
nities, handcuffed and marched to jail. They have been 
held in ordinary prison cells and all comforts have been 
denied to them as if they were criminals. Counsel 
engaged for them from outside the Province have been 
refused admission into the Province. Machine guns 
and aeroplanes have been used in dispersing unarmed 
mobs and crowds were fired at in many places. At 
Lahore the General Officer Commanding gave notice 
*'that unless all the shops were re-opened within 48 
hours all goods in the shops not opened will be sold 
by public auction." As to the causes of the upheaval, 
the Anglo-Indian view is contained in a telegraphic 
message to the London Times bearing date April 20th. 
Below we give a verbatim copy of this message: 

CAUSES OF THE UPHEAVAL. 

"Bombay, April 20. — We have passed through 
the most anxious ten days that India has known for 
half a century. We have further anxious days in 
store, for although in Bombay conditions are improving 
and Mr. Gandhi has publicly abandoned the passive 
resistance movement, while men of weight are rallying 
to the support of the Government, the situation in 
Northern India is disquieting. 

"We may pause to enquire into this widespread 
manifestation of violence. How came it that passive 
resistance to the Rowlatt Act — never likely to be 
applied to the greater part of India, especially to 



Xviil PREFACE 

Bombay, and nominally confined to the sale of pro- 
scribed literature of doubtful legality, which was wan- 
ing — suddenly flamed into riot, arson, and murder 
at Delhi, Ahmedabad, Viramgam, Amritsar, and other 
parts of the Punjab on the prevention of Mr. Gandhi's 
entry into Delhi? All day on April ii Bombay stood 
on the brink of a bloody riot, averted only by the 
Governor, Sir George Lloyd's prudent statesmanship 
and the great restraint of the police and military in 
face of grave provocation. 

*'The movement seems to have been twofold. In 
part it was the expression of the prevailing ferment. 
India is no less affected than other parts of the world 
by the social and intellectual revolution of the war, 
by expectations based on the destruction of German 
materialism and by ambitions for fuller partnership 
in the British Empire. 

PROFITEERING AND TRICKERY. 

''The disruptive effect of these ideals is accentuated 
by prevailing conditions. The prices of food are 
exceedingly high, supplies are scanty, while efforts to 
control prices are hampered by the profiteering and 
trade trickery unfortunately never absent from this 
country. [As if it was absent from other countries.] 

''India having been swept bare of foodstuffs, to 
meet the exigencies of the war, the people feel that 
the home Government is lukewarm in releasing sup- 
plies from outside, and resent particularly that the 
Shipping Controller is maintaining high freights on 
fat and rice from Burma. These severe sufferings are 
superimposed on the devastating influenza and cholera 
epidemics. So much for the social and economic 
situation. 

"Then the activities of the Indo-British Association 
created grave doubts whether Parliament will deal 
fairly with India when the reform scheme is con- 
sidered. The Rowlatt Act was precipitated into this 
surcharged atmosphere. 



PREFACE xix 

"The Act was wickedly perverted by the Extremists 
until among the common people it became the general 
belief that it gave plenary powers to a police which was 
feared and distrusted. Among educated people, few 
of whom studied the report or the Act, it was bitterly 
resented as a badge of India's subjection after loyal 
participation in the war, at a time when the strongest 
feeling in the country was craving for its self-respect 
in the eyes of the nations. Further, it was regarded 
as prejudicing the cause of political reform. 

"Another powerful contributory cause was the 
ferment amongst the Moslem community. Every- 
where the Moslems believe that the Peace Conference 
is bent on the destruction of Islam. There is no 
confidence in British protection after our declared 
policy in regard to Turkey and the undoing of the 
settled fact in Eastern Bengal in 191 1. 

"This feeling is the more dangerous because it is 
inchoate. Moslem officers returned from Palestine 
and Arabia, and acquainted with the realities of Turk- 
ish rule, have expressed astonishment at the strength 
of this feeling among their co-religionists here. Mo- 
hamedans have been foremost in the work of riot and 
destruction in Ahmedabad and Delhi, and the lower 
elements were ripe for trouble in Bombay. I am 
unable to say how far this ferment affected the out- 
breaks in the Punjab. 

"This seething Moslem unrest is the most menacing 
feature of Indian politics to-day. It explains the 
unprecedented admission of Hindus to the Mosques 
of Delhi and Aligarh. . . . 

REVOLUTIONARY INSPIRATION 

"So much for the general situation. In Northern 
India the outbreaks were nakedly revolutionary. 
They are unconnected with the Rowlatt Act or with 
passive resistance, which probably precipitated a 
movement long concerted. There is abundant evidence 
of the organized revolutionary character of the dis- 



XX 



PREFACE 



turbances in the systematic attacks on railways, 
telegraphs, and all means of communication, and its 
definitely anti-British character is apparent from the 
efforts to plunge the railways into a general strike. 

''There are signs of the inter-connection of the 
Punjab revolutionaries with the Bombay revolution- 
aries who organized attacks on communications at 
Ahmedabad and Viramgam, derailed trains, cut 
telegraphs, and sent rowdies from Kaira to take part 
in the work of destruction. There is evidence also 
of some outside inspiration, but whether Bolshevist 
or otherwise is obscure. 

"Whilst in the Punjab the soil was fruitful, owing 
to economic conditions, the ravages of influenza, 
and the pressure of last year's recruiting campaign, 
the revolutionary origin of the disturbances is un- 
questioned. . . ." 

As usual the message is a mixture of truth and 
imagination. At most it is a partisan view. Be the 
causes what they may, the events in our judgment 
amply justify the following conclusions: 

(a) That India is politically united in demanding 
a far reaching measure of self-determination. 

(b) That she will not be satisfied with paltry meas- 
ures of political reform which do not give her power 
to shape her fiscal policy in her own interests, inde- 
pendent of control from London. 

(c) That it is useless to further harp on the ''cleav- 
ages " of race, religion and language, in dealing with the 
problem of India. 

(d) That the country is no longer prepared to let 
measures of coercion pass and take effect without 
making their protest and dislike known to the authori- 
ties in a manner, the significance of which may not be 
open to misunderstanding. 



PREFACE Xxi 

The Indian members of the Legislative Council 
while opposing the Rowlatt Bills spoke in sufficiently 
clear and strong language of the grave situation the 
Government was creating by its ill-considered policy. 
They knew their people. The bureaucracy evidently 
dismissed it as bluff or, if it knew what was Ukely to 
happen, encouraged it in the hope that the outbreak 
might justify their opposition to, and dislike of, the 
Montagu-Chelmsford scheme. In doing that they 
have had to hatch the eggs they themselves laid. 
These events have, besides, proved (a) that the lead 
of the country has passed from the hands of the so 
called '^ natural leaders," the aristocracy of land, 
money and birth; (b) that even the moderate leaders 
have considerably lost in prestige and influence; 
(c) that the lead has definitely passed into hands that 
openly and frankly stand for self-determination and 
self-government within the Empire and are prepared 
for any sacrifice to achieve that end; (d) that the old 
methods of governing India must now be discarded 
once for all and the charge of provinces taken away 
from sun-dried bureaucrats of the type of Sir Michael 
O'Dwyer and Sir Reginald Craddock. 

The bloodshed in the Punjab, which outdid all 
other Provinces in sending help during the war both 
in men and money, pointed to the administration or 
mal-administration of Sir Michael O'Dwyer as re- 
sponsible for the nature and intensity of the outbreak. 
If ever there was a British ruler of India who deserved 
impeachment it is Sir Michael O'Dwyer. He was not 
only a tyrant and a snob of the worst order but he 
was incompetent also. One of the two things must 
have happened: Either he was out of touch with 



XXU PREFACE 

public feeling in the province or he deliberately pro- 
voked this disaster by a policy of strength. In either 
case he deserves to be pubHcly impeached and con- 
demned for incompetence or brutality or possibly for 
both. 

The following Summary of the orders passed by the 
officer commanding shows the nature of the martial 
law administered in the ''most loyal" province in 
India, a province which has so far been considered 
to be the right arm of British Raj in India. 

I have italicised some words and sentences for special 
attention. The reader I hope will note the exceptions 
in favor of the Europeans and the Indian servants in 
the employ of the Europeans and also the reasonable- 
ness of the other orders, threatening punishment upon 
the owners of certain properties and requiring ''all 
students," and all male persons belonging to private 
Colleges in Lahore to attend four times a day at a 
particular place for roll call. Order No. 14 is a gem 
of great brilliance. 

I have omitted order No. 6 as unimportant. Orders 
from 8 to 12 inclusive are not available. What has 
been given above, however, is quite sufficient to show 
the nature of the martial law that has been applied 
to the Punjab, after five years of unquestioned and 
unrivalled loyalty to the British Empire, in the period 
of greatest danger that had overtaken it. Such is the 
reward of "loyalty." 

No. I 

Whereas the Government of India has for good reasons pro- 
claimed Martial Law in the districts of Lahore and Amritsar; and 

Whereas superior military authority has appointed me to com- 
rnand troops and administer Martial Law in a portion of the Lahore 
district, . . . and whereas Martial Law may be briefly described 



PREFACE Xxiil 

as the will of the Military Commander in enforcing law, order and 
public safety: 

I make known to all concerned that until further orders by me 
the following wiU be strictly carried out: 

1. At 20-00 hours (8 o'clock) each evening a gun will be fired from 
the Fort, and from that signal till 05-00 hours (5 o'clock) on the 
following morning no person other than a European or a person in 
possession of a military permit signed by me or on my behalf will be 
permitted to leave his or her house or compound or the building in 
which he or she may be at 20 hours. During these prohibited hours 
no person other than those excepted above will be permitted to use 
the streets or roads, and any person found disobeying this order will 
be arrested, and if any attempt is made to evade or resist that person 
will be Uable to be shot. 

This and all other orders which from time to time I may deem 
necessary to make will be issued on my behalf from the water-works 
station in the city, whither every ward will keep at least four repre- 
sentatives from 6 A.M., till 17-00 hours (5 p.m.) daily to learn what 
orders, if any, are issued and to convey such orders to the inhabitants 
of their respective wards. The onus of ascertaining the orders issued 
by me will rest on the people through their representatives. 

2. Loyal and law-abiding persons have nothing to fear from the 
exercise of Martial Law. 

3. In order to protect the Uves of his Majesty's soldiers and 
police under my command, I make known that if any firearm is 
discharged or bombs thrown at them the most drastic reprisals 
will instantly be made against property surrounding the scene of the 
outrage. Therefore it behooves all loyal inhabitants to see to it that 
no evil-disposed agitator is allowed on his premises. 

4. During the period of Martial Law I prohibit all processions, 
meetings or other gatherings of more than 10 persons without my 
written authority, and any such meetings, gatherings or processions 
held in disobedience of this order will be broken up by force without 
warning. 

5. I forbid any person to offer violence or cause obstruction to 
any person desirous of opening his shop or conducting his business 
or proceeding to his work or business. Any person contravening 
this order wiU be arrested, tried by a summary court and be liable 
to be shot. 

6. At present the city of Lahore enjoys the advantage of electric 
lights and a water-supply; but the continuance of these supplies will 
depend on the good behaviour of the inhabitants and their prompt 
obedience to my orders. 

No. 2 
All tongas and tum-tums, (horse carriages) whether licensed for 
hire or otherwise, will be delivered up to the Mihtary Officer 
appointed for that purpose at the Punjab Light Horse ground by 
17-00 (5 p.m.) to-day — Tuesday, 15th April. Drivers wiU receive 
pay and horses be rationed. 



Xxiv PREFACE 

No. 3 
All motor-cars or vehicles of any descriptions will be delivered 
to the Military Officer appointed for that purpose at the Punjab 
club by 17-00 (s P.M.) this day. 

No. 4 
By virtue of the powers vested in me I have prohibited the issue 
of third or intermediate class tickets at all railway stations in the 
Lahore Civil Command, except only in the case of servants travelling 
with their European masters or servants or others in the employ of the 
Government. 

No. 5 
Whereas, from information received by me, it would appear that 
shops, generally known as Langars, for the sale of cooked food, are 
used for the purpose of illegal meetings, and for the dissemination of 
seditious propaganda, and whereas I notice that all other shops 
(particularly in Lahore city) have been closed as part of an organized 
demonstration against his Majesty's Government, now, therefore, 
by virtue of the powers vested in me under Martial J-aw, I order 
that all such Langars or shops for the sale of cooked food in the 
Lahore civil area, except such as may be granted an exemption in 
writing by me shall close and cease to trade by lo-oo hours (10 A.M.) 
tomorrow, Wednesday, the i6th April, 1919. 

Disobedience to this order will result in the confiscation of the 
contents of such shop and the arrest and trial by summary procedure 
of the owner or owners. 



No. 7 

"Whereas I have reason to believe that certain students of the 
D. A. V. College in Lahore are engaged in spreading seditious propa- 
ganda directed against his Majesty's Government, and whereas I 
deem it expedient in the interests of the preservation of law and 
order to restrict the activities of such students, I make the following 
order: — 

All students of the said college now in this Command area will 
report themselves to the Officer Commanding Troops at the Brad- 
laugh Hall daily at the hours specified below and remain there imtil 
the roll of such students has been called by the principal or some 
other officer approved by me acting on his behalf, and until they 
have been dismissed by the Officer Commanding Troops at Brad- 
laugh Hall. 

07-00 hours. (7 A.M.) 

ii-oo hours. (11 A.M.) 

15-00 hours. (3 P.M.) 

19-30 hours. (7.30 P.M.) 

No. 8 
Whereas some evilly-disposed persons have torn down or defaced 
notices and orders which I have caused to be exhibited for infor- 



PREFACE XXV 

mation and good government of the people in the Lahore (Civil) 
Command. 

In future all orders that I have to issue under Martial Law mil 
be handed to such owners of property as I may select and it will he the 
duty of stich owners of property to exhibit and keep exhibited and un- 
damaged in the position on their property selected by me all such orders. 

The duty of protecting such orders will therefore devolve on 
the owners of property and failure to ensure the proper protection 
and continued exhibition of my orders will result in severe punish- 
ment. 

Similarly f I hold responsible the owner of any property on which 
seditious or any other notices, proclamations or writing not authorized 
by me are exhibited. 



No. 13 

Whereas information laid before me shows that a martial law 
notice issued by me and posted by my orders on a property known 
as the Sanatan Dharam College Hostel on Bahawalpur road, has been 
torn or otherwise defaced, in contravention of my Martial Law 
Notice No. 8. 

Now, therefore, by virtue of the powers vested in me under 
martial law, I order the immediate arrest of all male persons domiciled 
in the said hostel and their internment in the Lahore Fort pending my 
further orders as to their trial or other disposal. 

No. 14 

Whereas practically every shop and business establishment in the 
area under my command has been closed in accordance with the 
hartal or organized closure of business directed against his Majesty's 
Government. 

And whereas the continuance or resumption of such hartal is 
detrimental to the good order and governance of the said area. 

And whereas I deem it expedient to cause the said hartal to entirely 
cease: 

Now therefore by virtue of the powers vested in me by martial 
law I make the following order, namely: — 

By lo-oo hours (10 a.m.) tomorrow (Friday), the i8th day of 
April, 1919, every shop and business estabhshment (except only 
langare referred to in martial law notice No. 5, dated 15th April, 
1 91 9) in the area under my command, shall open and carry on its 
business and thereafter daily shall continue to keep open and carry on 
its btisiness during the usual hours up to 20-00 hours (8 p.m.) in 
exactly the same manner as before the creation of the said hartal. 

And likewise I order that every skilled or other worker will from 
10-30 hours (10.30 A.M.) tomorrow, resume and continue during the 
usual hours his ordinary trade, work or calling. 

And I warn all concerned that if at lo-oo hours (10 a.m.) to- 
morrow, or at any subsequent time I find this order has been with- 



XXVI 



PREFACE 



out good and valid reason disobeyed, the persons concerned will be 
arrested and tried under the summary procedure of martial law, and 
shops so closed will be opened and kept open by force, any resultant 
loss arising from such forcible opening will rest on the o\vners and on 
occupiers concerned. ^ i . • .1 

And I further warn all concerned that this order must be strictly 
obeyed in spirit as well as in letter, that is to say, that to open a 
shop and then refuse to sell goods and to charge an exorbitant or 
prohibitive rate, will be deemed a contravention of this order. 

[Note: Shops had evidently remained closed for seven days.] 

No. 15 

Whereas it has come to my knowledge that the present state of 
unrest is being added to and encouraged by the spreading of false, 
inaccurate or exaggerated reports or rumours: 

Now, therefore, by virtue of the powers vested in me by martial 
law I give notice that any person found guilty of pubUshing, spread- 
ing or repeating, false, inaccurate or exaggerated reports in con- 
nection with the military or political situation, will be arrested and 
summarily dealt with under martial law. 

No. 16 
Whereas I have reason to beheve that certain students of the 
Dyal Singh College in Lahore are engaged in spreading seditious 
propaganda directed against his Majesty's Government and whereas 
I deem it expedient in the interest of the preservation of law and 
order to restrict the activities of such students, I make the following 
order: — 

All students of the said college now in this command area will 
report themselves to the officer commanding troops at the tele- 
graph office daily at the hours specified below and remain there 
imtil the roU of such students has been called by the principal or 
some other officer approved by me acting on his behalf, and until 
they have been dismissed by the Officer Commanding Troops at 
the telegraph office: — 

07-00 hours. (7 A.M.) 

ii-oo hours. (11 A.M.) 

15-00 hours. (3 P.M.) 

ig-oo hours. (7 p.m.) 

First parade at 11 -oo hours (11 a.m.) on the (?) April, 1919. 

"The latest order under martial law passed today makes it un- 
lawful for more than two persons to walk abreast on any constructed 
or clearly defined pavement or side- walk in such area. Disobedience 
to this order will be punished by special powers under martial law. 
It shall also be illegal for any male person to carry or be found in 
possession of an instrument known as a lathi. All persons dis- 
obeying this order will be arrested and tried by summary proceed- 
ings under martial law." 



PREFACE XXVU 

No. 24 

Whereas I deem it expedient to make provision for the preser- 
vation of health and the greater comfort of British troops stationed 
in the area under my command, 

And whereas a number of electric fans and lights are required in 
the buildings in which some of such troops are quartered, 

Now therefore by virtue of the powers vested in me by martial 
law I authorize any officer appointed by me for that purpose to enter 
any college, pubhc building, hostel, hotel, private or other residence 
or building and remove such number of electric lights and fans 
required for the purpose aforesaid. 

And any attempt to obstruct such removal, or to hide, or to damage 
or to impair the immediate efficiency of any such fans or Ughts, will 
be summarily dealt with under martial law, 

But nothing in this order shall authorize the removal of any fan or 
light from a room usually inhabited by a woman. 

These are only a few of the orders we have been able to obtain. 

For weeks the Punjab was in a state of terror. Almost all of the 
Native papers were either directly or indirectly suppressed or ter- 
rorized into silence. Numerous persons were arrested and placed for 
trial before military commissioners. Among them were a large num- 
ber of the most honored men in the province. Legal coimsel from 
ouside the province was denied to them, and admission of newspaper- 
men into the province barred. In punishing the persons found 
guilty the military conmiissioners have awarded sentences, the 
parallel of which can only be found in the history of Czarism in 
Russia. Flogging in the public was resorted to in more than one 
place. In short, a complete reign of terror was established. So 
great was the terrorism that the whole country was thrown into 
such a paroxysm of rage, anger and despair as to make the people 
forget the desire for a political constitution at this terrible price. 

Just as I am writing these lines I learn from the 
London Times that the reports of the two committees 
that were sent to India to inquire into {a) questions 
connected with the franchise and {h) the division of 
functions between the Government of India and local 
governments, and between the official and the popular 
elements in the local governments, have been published 
in Great Britain. In one of the Appendices is given a 
rather brief and inadequate summary of the recommen- 
dations of these committees published by the London 
Times. At this stage it is impossible to make any 



XXviil PREFACE 

comments except that the franchise is by no means as 
broad as it could have been, the restriction of local 
residence on candidates for the provincial Legislative 
Councils extremely unreasonable, and the strength 
of the Provincial Councils very meagre. The recom- 
mendations are unsatisfactory in other respects also, 
specially the power granted to the Governor to dis- 
miss ministers. 

The question, however, is, "Will the Cabinet stand 
by these recommendations or will they allow them to 
be whittled down?" Mr. Montagu's bill, which is 
promised to be introduced in the House of Commons 
early in June, will answer the question. 

In conclusion, I have to tender my thanks to my 
friend Dr. J. T. Sunderland for having read my proofs. 

June 2, loio. T ^ 

Lajpat Rai 



CONTENTS 

Preface, v 

I Introductory, i 

n Democracy in India, i6 
m The Present Ideals, 30 
IV The Stages, 36 

V The Conditions of the Problem, 39 
VI The Public Services in India, 62 
vn The Indian Army and Navy, 84 
vm The European Community in India, ^ 
IX The Native States, 98 

X The Proposals, ho 
XI India's Claim to Fiscal Autonomy, 136 
xn The Revolutionary Movement, 146 

XIII The Punjab, 164 

XIV Recommendations FOR Repressive Legislation, 175 

XV The Revolutionary Party, 181 

XVI Education, 190 
xvn The Problem, 197 

xvin The International Aspect, 205 
Appendix A, 209 
Appendix B, 225 
Appendix C, 231 



The Political Future of India 



INTRODUCTORY 

Now we are faced with the greatest and 
the grimmest struggle of all. Liberty, 
Equality, Fraternity, not amongst men, 
but amongst nations — great and small, 
powerful and weak, exalted and humble, 
— equality, fraternity, amongst peoples 
as well as amongst men — that is the 
challenge which has been thrown to us. . . . 
My appeal to the people of this country, 
and, if my appeal can reach beyond it, is 
this, that we should continue to fight for 
the great goal of international right and 
international justice, so that never again 
shall brute force sit on the throne of justice, 
nor barbaric strength wield the sceptre of 
right. 

David Lloyd George 

"Causes and Aims of the War." Speech 
delivered at Glasgow, on being presented 
with the freedom of that city, June 29, 191 7 

We are told that the world is going to be recon- 
structed on entirely new lines; that all nations, big or 
small, shall be allowed the right of self-determination; 
that the weaker and backward peoples will no longer 
be permitted to be exploited and dominated by the 
stronger and the more advanced nations of the earth; 
and that justice will be done to all. ''What we seek," 
says President Wilson, *'is the reign of law, based upon 
the consent of the governed and sustained by the 
organized opinion of mankind." 



2 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

The Indian people also form a part of the world that 
needs reconstructing. They constitute one-fifth of 
the human race, and inhabit about two million square 
miles of very fertile and productive territory. They 
have been a civilized people for thousands of years, 
though their civilization is a bit different from that of 
the West. We advisedly say "a bit different," because 
in fundamentals that civilization has the same basic 
origin as that of Greece and Rome, the three peoples 
having originally sprung from the same stock and 
their languages, also, being of common descent. For 
the last 150 years, or (even) more, India has been ruled 
by Great Britain. Her people have been denied any 
determining voice in the management of their own 
affairs. For over thirty years or more they have car- 
ried on an organized agitation for an autonomous form 
of Government within the British Empire. This 
movement received almost no response from the re- 
sponsible statesmen of the Empire until late in the 
war. In the meantime some of the leaders grew sullen 
and downhearted, and, under the influence of bitter 
disappointment and almost of despair, took to revolu- 
tionary forms. The bulk of the people, however, have 
kept their balance and have never faltered in their 
faith in peaceful methods. When the war broke out 
the people of India at once realized the world signifi- 
cance of this titanic struggle and in no uncertain voice 
declared their allegiance to the cause of the Allies. 
Our masters, however, while gratefully accepting our 
economic contributions and utilizing the standing 
Indian army, spurned our offers for further military 
contributions. In the military development of the In- 
dians they saw a menace to their supremacy in India, 



INTRODUCTORY 3 

The Russian Revolution first, and then the entry of 
the United States into the War, brought about a 
change in the point of view of the British statesmen. 
For the first time they realized that they could not 
win the war without the fullest cooperation of the 
people of India, both in the military and the economic 
sense and that the fullest cooperation of the United 
States also required as a condition precedent, quite a 
radical revision of their war aims. President Wilson's 
political idealism, his short, pithy and epigrammatic 
formulas compelled similar declarations by Allied 
statesmen. The British statesmen, at the helm of 
affairs, found it necessary to affirm their faith in Presi- 
dent Wilson's principles and formulas if they would 
not let the morale of their own people at home suffer 
in comparison. In the meantime the situation in 
India was becoming uncomfortable. The Nationalists 
and the Home Rulers insisted on a clear and une- 
quivocal declaration of policy on the lines of President 
Wilson's principles. The British statesmen in charge 
of Indian affairs, at Whitehall, were still temporizing 
when the report of the Royal Commission on the causes 
of the Mesopotamia disaster burst out on the half- 
dazed British mind like a bombshell. To the awaken- 
ing caused by the report and its disclosures a material 
contribution was made by the outspoken, candid 
and clear-cut speech of a younger statesman, whose 
knowledge of the working of the Indian Government 
could not be questioned. When the Parliament, 
press and platform were all ablaze with indignation 
and shame at the supposed incompetence of the Indian 
Government, to whose inefl&ciency and culpable 
neglect of duty were ascribed the series of disasters 



4 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

that ended with the surrender of a British force at 
Kut-el-amara, Mr. Edwin Samuel Montagu, who had 
been an Under Secretary for India under Lord Morley 
and was at the time of the Mesopotamia disaster 
Minister of Munitions, came out with a strong and 
emphatic condemnation of the system and the form 
of Government under which the "myriads" of India 
Hved and had their affairs managed. Mr. Montagu's 
opinion of the machinery of the Indian Government 
was expressed as follows: 

"The machinery of Government in this country 
with its unwritten constitution, and the machinery of 
Government in our Dominions has proved itself suffi- 
ciently elastic, sufficiently capable of modification, 
to turn a peace-pursuing instrument into a war-making 
instrument. It is the Government of India alone which 
does not seem capable of transformation, and I regard 
that as based upon the fact that the machinery is 
statute-ridden machinery. The Government of India 
is too wooden, too iron, too inelastic, too antediluvian, 
to be any use for the modern purposes we have in 
view. I do not believe that anybody could ever 
support the Government of India from the point of 
view of modern requirements. But it would do. 
Nothing serious had happened since the Indian mutiny, 
the public was not interested in Indian affairs, and 
it required a crisis to direct attention to the fact that 
the Indian Government is an indefensible system of 
Government." 

Regarding the Indian Budget Debates in Parlia- 
ment, he said: 

"Does anybody remember the Indian Budget 
Debates before the War? Upon that day the House 
was always empty. India did not matter, and the 
Debates were left to people on the one side whom 
their enemies sometimes called " bureaucrats/' and 



INTRODUCTORY 5 

on the other side to people whom their enemies some- 
times called "seditionists," until it almost came to be 
disreputable to take part in Indian Debates. It 
required a crisis of this kind to realise how important 
Indian affairs were. After all, is the House of Com- 
mons to be blamed for that? What was the Indian 
Budget Debate? It was a purely academic discussion 
which had no effect whatever upon events in India, 
conducted after the events that were being discussed, 
had taken place." 

He held that the salary of the Indian Secretary 
of State should be paid from the British Treasury, 
and then there would be real debates: 

"How can you defend the fact that the Secretaries 
of State for India alone of all the occupants of the 
Front Bench, with the possible exception of the Chan- 
cellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, are not responsible 
to this House for their salaries, and do not come here 
with their Estimates in order that the House of Com- 
mons may express its opinion. . . . 

''What I am saying now is in the light of these 
revelations of this inelasticity of Indian government. 
However much you could gloss over those indefensible 
proceedings in the past, the time has now come to 
alter them. 

''The tone of those Debates is unreal, unsubstantial 
and ineffective. If Estimates for India, like Esti- 
mates for the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, 
and the Colonial Secretary were to be discussed on the 
floor of the House of Commons, the Debates on India 
would be as good as the Debates on foreign affairs. 
After all, what is the difference? Has it even been 
suggested to the people of Australia that they should 
pay the salary of the Secretary of State for the Colony? 
Why should the whole cost of that building in Charles 
Street, including the building itself, be an item of the 
Indian taxpayer's burden rather than of this House 
of Commons and the people of the country?" 



•.$ THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

Can and does the House of Commons control the 
India Office? Here is Mr. Montagu's answer. 

''It has been sometimes questioned whether a dem- 
ocracy can rule an Empire. I say that in this in- 
stance the democracy has never had the opportunity 
of trying. But even if the House of Commons were 
to give orders to the Secretary of State, the Secretary 
of State is not his own master. In matters vitally 
affecting India, he can be overruled by a majority of 
his Council. I may be told that the cases are very 
rare in which the Council has differed from the Secre- 
tary of State for India. I know one case anyhow, 
where it was a very near thing, and where the action 
of the Council might without remedy have involved 
the Government of India in a policy out of harmony 
with the declared poUcy of the House of Commons and 
the Cabinet. And these gentlemen are appointed for 
seven years, and can only be controlled from the 
Houses of Parliament by a resolution carried in both 
Houses calling on them for their resignations. The 
whole system of the India Office is designed to prevent 
control by the House of Commons for fear that there 
might be too advanced a Secretary of State. I do 
not say that it is possible to govern India through the 
intervention of the Secretary of State with no expert 
advice, but what I do say is that in this epoch now 
after the Mesopotamia Report, he must get his expert 
advice in some other way than by this Council of men, 
great men though, no doubt, they always are, who 
come home after lengthy service in India to spend the 
first years of their retirement as members of the 
Council of India. 

"Does any Member of this House know much about 
procedure in the India Office? I have been to the 
India Office and to other offices. I tell this House 
that the statutory organization of the India Office 
produces an apotheosis of circumlocution and red tape 
beyond the dreams of any ordinary citizen." 



INTRODUCTORY *J 

His own idea of what should be done at that juncture 
was thus expressed: 

''But whatever be the object of your rule in India, 
the universal demand of those Indians whom I have 
met and corresponded with, is that you should state 
it. Having stated it, you should give some instalment 
to show that you are in real earnest, some beginning of 
the new plan which you intend to pursue, that gives 
you the opportunity of giving greater representative 
institutions in some form or other to the people of 
India. . . . 

"But I am positive of this, that your great claim to 
continue the illogical system of Government by which 
we have governed India in the past is that it was 
efficient. It has been proved to be not efficient. It 
has been proved to be not sufficiently elastic to express 
the will of the Indian people; to make them into a 
warring Nation as they wanted to be. The history of 
this War shows that you can rely upon the loyalty of 
the Indian people to the British Empire — if you ever 
before doubted it! If you want to use that loyalty, 
you must take advantage of that love of country which 
is a religion in India, and you must give them that 
bigger opportunity of controlling their own destinies, 
not merely by Councils which cannot act, but by 
control, by growing control, of the Executive itself. 
Then in your next War — if we ever have War — in 
your next crisis, through times of peace, you will have 
a contented India, an India equipped to help. Believe 
me, Mr. Speaker, it is not a question of expediency, 
it is not a question of desirability. Unless you are 
prepared to remodel, in the light of modern experience, 
this century-old and cumberous machine, then, I 
believe, I verily believe, that you will lose your right 
to control the destinies of the Indian Empire." 

The quick and resourceful mind of Premier Lloyd 
George at once grasped the situation. He lost no 



8 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OE INDIA 

time in deciding what was needed. Probably over 
the head of his Tory colleagues, possibly with their 
consent, he gave the Indian portfolio to Mr. Montagu, 
and told him quietly to set to business. Mr. Mon- 
tagu's first step was the announcement of August 20, 
191 7. On that date he made in the House of Commons 
the following memorable statement: 

''The policy of His Majesty's Government, with 
which the Government of India are in complete accord, 
is that of the increasing association of Indians in every 
branch of the administration and the gradual develop- 
m.ent of self-governing institutions with a view to the 
progressive realisation of responsible government in 
India as an integral part of the British Empire. They 
have decided that substantial steps in this direction 
should be taken as soon as possible, and that it is of 
the highest importance as a preliminary to considering 
what these steps should be that there should be a free 
and informal exchange of opinion between those in 
authority at home and in India. His Majesty's 
Government have accordingly decided, with His 
Majesty's approval, that I should accept the Viceroy's 
invitation to proceed to India to discuss these matters 
with the Viceroy and the Government of India, to 
consider with the Viceroy the views of local Govern- 
ments, and to receive with him the suggestions of 
representative bodies and others. 

''I would add that progress in this policy can only 
be achieved by successive stages. The British Govern- 
ment and the Government of India, on whom the 
responsibility lies for the welfare and advancement of 
the Indian peoples, must be judges of the time and 
measure of each advance, and they must be guided by 
the co-operation received from those upon whom new 
opportunities of service will thus be conferred and by 
the extent to which it is found that confidence can be 
reposed in their sense of responsibility. 



INTRODUCTORY 9 

"Ample opportunity will be afforded for public 
discussion of the proposals which will be submitted in 
due course to Parliament." 

It is obvious that the content of the second sen- 
tence of paragraph two in the above announcement 
is in fundamental opposition to the right of every 
nation to self-determination, a principle now admitted 
to be of general application (including, according to 
the British Premier, even the black races inhabiting 
the Colonies that were occupied by Germany before 
the War, within its purview). The people of India 
are not on the level of these races. Even if it be 
assumed that they are not yet in a position to exercise 
that right, fully and properly, it is neither right nor 
just to assume that they shall never be in that position 
even hereafter. The qualifications implied in that 
sentence are, besides, quite needless and superfluous. 
As long as India remains ''an integral part of the 
British Empire" she cannot draft a constitution which 
does not meet with the approval of the British Parlia- 
ment and the British Sovereign. It is to be regretted 
that the British statesmen could not rise equal to the 
spirit of the times and make an announcement free 
from that spirit of autocratic bluster and racial swagger 
which was entirely out of place at a time when they 
were making impassioned appeals to Indian manhood 
to share the burdens of Empire by contributing un- 
grudgingly in men and money for its defence. This 
attitude is somewhat inconsistent with the statements 
in paragraph 179 of the Montagu-Chelmsford Report, 
wherein, after referring to the natural evolution of 
"the desire for self-determination," the distinguished 
authors of the Report concede that "the demand that 



lO THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

now meets us from the educated classes of India is 
no more than the right and natural outcome of the 
work of a hundred years." 

In spite of this uncalled for reservation in the an- 
nouncement, it is perfectly true that "the announce- 
ment marks the end of one epoch and the beginning 
of a new one." What makes the announcement 
''momentous," however, is not the language used, as 
even more high-sounding phrases have been used 
before by eminent British statesmen of the position 
of Warren Hastings, Macaulay, Munroe, Metcalf and 
others, but the fact that the statement has been made 
by the Secretary of State for India, as representing 
the Crown and the Cabinet who, in their turn, are 
the constitutional representatives of the people of 
Great Britain and Ireland. The statement is thus 
both morally and legally binding on the British 
people, though it will not acquire that character so 
far as the people of India are concerned, unless it is 
embodied in a Statute of Parliament. Is it too much 
to hope that when that stage comes the second sentence 
of the second paragraph might be omitted or so modified 
as to remove the inconsistency pointed out above? 

We have no doubt, however, that the language of 
the announcement notwithstanding, the destiny of 
India remains ultimately in the hands of the Indians 
themselves. It will be determined, favorably or 
unfavorably, by the sohdity of their public life, by 
the purity and idealism of the Indian pubhc men to 
be hereafter entrusted with the task of administration, 
by the honesty and intensity of their endeavor to 
uplift the masses, both intellectually and economically, 
by the extent to which they reduce the religious and 



INTRODUCTORY II 

communal excuses that are being put forth as reasons 
for half-hearted advance, and by the amount of political 
unity they generate in the nation. The well known 
maxim that those who will must by themselves be free, 
is as good today as ever. They will have to do all 
this in order to persuade the British Parliament to 
declare them fit for responsible Government. Once 
they show their fitness by deeds and by actual conduct, 
no one can keep them in leading-strings. 

Coming back to the announcement itself, would it 
not be well to bear in mind that what differentiates 
this announcement from the statutory declarations of 
the Act of 1833 and the Royal proclamation of 1858 
is not the language used but the step or steps taken to 
ascertain Indian opinion, to understand and interpret 
it in accordance with the spirit of the times and the 
frankness and fairness with which the whole problem 
is stated in the joint report of the two statesmen, who 
are the present official heads of the Government of 
India. Nor can it be denied that the announcement 
and the report have received the cordial appreciation 
of the Indian leaders. 

We, that is, the Indian Nationalists, have heretofore 
concerned ourselves more with criticism of the British 
administration than with the problem of construction, 
though our criticism has never been merely destructive. 
We have always ended with constructive suggestions. 
Henceforth, if the spirit of the announcement is trans- 
lated into deeds it will be our duty to cooperate actively 
in constructive thought. Not that we refused coopera- 
tion in the past, but the conditions and the terms on 
which we were asked to cooperate made it impossible 
for us to make an effective response. 



12 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

Several British critics of the Indian Nationalists 
have from time to time charged them with lack of 
constructive ability. They ignore the fact that 
political conditions in India were an effective bar to 
any display of ability. 

The first attempt at constitution making was made 
by the Congress in 1915, and as such was bound to be 
rather timid and half-hearted. The situation since 
then has considerably improved and the discussions 
of the last twelve months have enabled the Secretary 
for India and the Viceroy to claim that, in certain 
respects, at least, their scheme is a more effective 
step towards responsible Government than the scheme 
promulgated jointly by the Congress and the Muslim 
League. How far that claim can be substantiated 
remains to be seen. This much is, however, clear: 
come what may, along with the rest of the world, India 
cannot go back to the pre-war conditions of life. The 
high functionaries of the British Government in India 
are also conscious of that fact, as one of them, the pres- 
ent Lieutenant Governor of the United Provinces of 
Agra and Oudh, a member of the Indian bureaucracy, 
remarked only recently in a speech at Allahabad: 

"Nothing will ever be the same," said Sir Harcourt 
Butler; "this much is certain, that we shall have to 
shake up all our old ideals and begin afresh ... we 
have crossed the watershed and are looking down on 
new plains. The old oracles are dumb. The old 
shibboleths are no more heard. Ideals, constitutions, 
rooted ideas are being shovelled away without argu- 
ment or comment or memorial. . . . Our administra- 
tive machine belongs to another age. It is top-heavy. 
Its movements are cumbrous, slow, deliberate. It 



INTRODUCTORY I3 

rejoices in delay. It grew up when time was not 
the object, when no one wanted change, when financial 
economy was the ruling passion of Governments, 
imperial and provincial. Now there are the stirrings 
of young national life, and economic springtime, a 
calling for despatch, quick response, bold experiment. 
Secretariats with enormous offices overhang the 
administration. An eminent ecclesiastic once told me 
that Rome had, by centuries of experience, reduced 
delay to a science; he used to think her mistress of 
postponement and procrastination, but the Govern- 
ment of India beat Rome every time. Only ecclesiatics 
could dare so to speak of the Government of India. 
I, for one, will not lay audacious hands on the chariot 
of the sun." 

Coming, as it does, from a member of the Anglo- 
Indian bureaucracy, this statement means much 
more to the Indian people than even the words of the 
British Premier. If this statement is not mere camou- 
flage, but represents a genuine change of heart on the 
part of the British bureaucracy in India, then it is all 
the more inexplicable to us why the new scheme of 
the Secretary for India and the Viceroy should breathe 
so much distrust of the educated classes of India. 
Any way, we have nothing but praise for the spirit of 
frankness and fairness which generally characterizes 
the report. However we might disagree with the 
conclusions arrived at, it is but right to acknowledge 
that the analysis of the problem and its constituting 
elements is quite masterly and the attempt to find a 
solution which will meet the needs of the situation 
as understood by them absolutely sincere and genuine. 
This fact makes it all the more necessary that Indian 



14 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

Nationalists of all classes and all shades of opinion 
should give their best thought to the consideration 
of the problem in a spirit of construction and coopera- 
tion, as distinguished from mere fault-finding. Nor 
should it be forgotten for a moment that Mr. Montagu 
and Lord Chelmsford were all the time, when drawing 
their scheme, influenced by considerations of what, 
under the circumstances, is practicable and likely to be 
accepted, not only in India by the Anglo-Indian 
bureaucracy and the non-official European com- 
munity, but by the conservative British opinion at home. 
It is the latter we have to convince and win over 
before the scheme has a ghost of a chance of being 
improved upon. When we say conservative opinion 
we include in that expression the Liberal and Labour 
Imperialists also. We should never forget that it is 
hard to part with power, however idealistic the in- 
dividual vested with power may be, and it is still 
harder to throw away the chances of profit which one 
(and those in whom one is interested) have gained by 
efforts extending over a century and a half, and in the 
exercise of which one sees no immediate danger. I 
am of the opinion that hitherto Indian representation 
in England has been extremely meagre, spasmodic and 
inadequate to the needs of the situation. Outside 
England, India's voice has been altogether unheard. 
We have so far displayed an almost unpardonable 
simplicity in failing to recognise that the world is so 
situated these days that public opinion in one country 
sometimes reacts quite effectively on public opinion 
in another. It is our duty, therefore, to increase our 
representation in England and to keep our case before 
the world with fresh energy and renewed vigour, not 



INTRODUCTORY 



15 



in a spirit of carping denunciation of the British 
Government of India, but with a desire to educate and 
enlist liberal and right-minded opinion all over the 
world in our favor. In the following pages an attempt 
is made to examine the Montagu-Chelmsford report 
in a spirit of absolute candour and fairness, with 
practical suggestions for the improvement of the 
scheme in the light of Indian and British criticism 
thereupon. 



n 

DEMOCRACY IN INDIA 

A nation that can sing about its defeat is 
a nation which is immortal. 

David Lloyd George 

"Serbia." Speech delivered at the 
Serbian Lunch (Savoy Hotel), August 
8, 1917. 

Before we take up the report of the Secretary for 
India and the Viceroy we intend to clear the ground 
by briefly meeting the almost universal impression that 
prevails in educated circles in the West, that democratic 
institutions are foreign to the genius of the Asiatic 
peoples and have never been known in India before. 
The latest statement to this effect was made by Mr. 
Reginald Coupland of the Round Table Quarterly^ in 
an article he contributed to the New Republic (Sep- 
tember 7, 1918) on ''Responsible Government in India." 
We have neither the time nor the desire to go into the 
question as it relates to other Asiatic countries, though 
we might state, in general terms, that an impartial 
study of Asiatic history will disclose that in the cen- 
turies preceding the Reformation in Europe, Asia 
was as democratic or undemocratic as Europe. Since 
then democracy has developed on modern lines in 
Europe. While Asia has gradually disintegrated and 
fallen under foreign domination, Europe has progressed 

16 



DEMOCRACY IN INDIA I7 

towards democracy. As regards India, however, we 
intend to refer briefly to what historical evidence is 
available. 

Firstly, we wish to make clear what we under- 
stand by "democracy." There is no desire to enter 
into an academic discussion of the subject nor to 
burden this book with quotations from eminent thinkers 
and writers. In our judgment, the best definition of 
democracy so far has been furnished by Abraham 
Lincoln, viz., "the government of the people, by the 
people and for the people," regardless of the process or 
processes by which that government is constituted. 
One must, however, be clear minded as to what is 
meant by "the people." Does the expression include 
all the people that inhabit the particular territory to 
which the expression applies, regardless of sex, creed, 
color and race, or does it not? If it does, we are afraid 
there is little democracy even in Europe and America 
today. Until recently half of the population was 
denied all political power in the State by virtue of 
sex. Of the other half a substantial part was denied 
that right by virtue of economic status or, to be more 
accurate, by lack of economic status considered neces- 
sary for the exercise of political power. Even now 
the Southern States of the United States, Amendment 
XV to the American Constitution notwithstanding, 
effectively bar the colored people from the exercise of 
the franchise supposed to have been accorded to them 
by the amendment. In Europe, religious and social 
bars still exist in the constitutions of the different 
states. As Great Britain is supposed to be the most 
democratic country in Europe, we cannot do better 
than take the history of the growth of public franchise 



1 8 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

in that country as the best illustration of the growth 
of democracy in the terms of President Lincoln's 
formula. 

Travelling backwards, the earliest democratic in- 
stitutions known to Europe were those of Greece and 
Rome. In applying the term ''democratic" to the 
city republics of Greece and Rome it is ignored that 
these ''republics" were in no sense democratic. "Lib- 
erty," says Putnam Weale, "as it was understood in 
those two celebrated republics of Athens and Sparta 
meant abject slavery to the vast mass of the population, 
slavery every whit as cruel as any in the Southern 
States of the American Union before the war of Libera- 
tion. ... In neither of these two republics did the 
freemen ever exceed twenty thousand, whilst the 
slaves ran into hundreds of thousands, and were used 
just as the slaves of Asiatics were used.^ Thus the 
Greek republics were simply cities in which a certain 
portion of the inhabitants, little qualified to exercise 
them, had acquired exclusive privileges, while they 
kept the great body of their brethren in a state of 
abject slavery." ^ Discussing the nature of Roman 
citizenship Putnam Weale remarks (p. 25) that "in 
spite of the polite fiction of citizenship, the destinies of 
scores of millions were effectively disposed of by a 
few thousands." This was true not only with regard 
to the outlying parts of the Empire but even as to 

^ It is extremely doubtful if there were any slaves in India in the 
corresponding period of Indian history. At least, Megasthenes, 
the Greek ambassador at the Court of Chandra Gupta, did not find 
any in northern India, though his opinion is not accepted as quite 
correct. It is said that slavery did exist in a mild form in the southern 
peninsula. 

2 The Conflict of Colour, by Putnam Weale, The Macmillan Co., 
New York, 1910, pp. 20-21. 



DEMOCRACY IN INDIA 



19 



Italy itself. "Roman liberty," continues Putnam 
Weale, 'though an improvement on Greek concep- 
tions, was like all liberty of antiquity confined really 
to those who, being present in the capital, could take 
an active part in the public deliberations. It was the 
liberty of city and not of a land. It was therefore 
exactly similar in practise, if not in theory, to the kind 
of liberty, which has always been understood in ad- 
vanced Asiatic states — the system of Government 
by equipoise and nothing else. The idea of giving 
those who lived at a distance from the capital any means 
of representing themselves was never considered at 
all; and so, it was the populace of the capital (or only 
a part of it), aided by such force as might be introduced 
by the contesting generals or leaders, which held all 
the actual political power. Representative Government 

— the only effective guarantee of liberty of any sort 

— had therefore not yet been dreamt of.^^ [The italics 
are ours.] 

Alison in his History of Europe, Vol. I, says: "The 
states of Florence, Genoa, Venice and Pisa were not in 
reality free; they were communities in which a few 
individuals had usurped the rights, and disposed of 
the fortunes, of the great bulk of their fellow citizens, 
whom they governed as subjects or indeed as slaves. 
During the most flourishing period of their history, 
the citizens of all Italian republics did not amount to 
20,000, and these privileged classes held as many 
million in subjection. The citizens of Venice were 
2500 and those of Genoa 4500, those of Pisa, Siena, 
Lucea and Florence taken together, not above 6000." 
[Italics ours.] Coming to more modern times we find 
it Stated by Morse Stephens in hi^ jSistory of Revolu-* 



20 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

tionary Europe that 'Hhe period which preceded the 
French Revolution and the era of war from the troubles 
of which Modern Europe was to be born may be 
characterised as that of the benevolent despots. The 
State was everything, the nation nothing." Speaking 
of the eighteenth-century conditions in Europe, 
Stephens remarks that "the great majority of the 
peasants of Europe were throughout that century 
absolute serfs"; also that "the mass of the population 
of Central and Eastern Europe was purely agricultural 
and in its poverty expected naught but the bare neces- 
saries of existence. The cities and consequently the 
middle classes formed but an insignificant factor in 
the population." These quotations reveal the real 
character of the European democracy in ancient and 
mediaeval and even in early modern Europe up to the 
end of the eighteenth century, or, to be more accurate, 
to the time of the French Revolution. Compare this 
with the following facts about the political institutions 
of India, during the ancient and mediaeval times: 

(i) First we have the testimony of ancient Brah- 
manic and Buddhistic literature, preserved in their 
sacred books, about the right of the people to elect 
their rulers; the duty of the rulers to obey the law 
and their obligation to consult their ministers as well 
as the representatives of the public in all important 
affairs of State. 

The Vedic literature contains references to non- 
monarchial forms of Government,^ makes mention of 
elected rulers and of assemblies of people, though the 
normal as distinguished from universal form of Govern- 

^ Public Administration in Ancient India^ by P, Banerjea, 
Macmillan, London, 1916, p. 42. 



DEMOCRACY IN INDIA 21 

ment according to Professor Macdonald was by Kings, 
"si situation which, as in the case of the Aryan invaders 
of Greece and of the German invaders of England, 
resulted almost necessarily in strengthening the 
monarchic element of the constitution." ^ 

In the Aitreya Brahmana occur terms which are 
translated by some as representing the existence of 
*' self -governed" and "kingless" states. These author- 
ities have been collected, translated and explained by 
K. P. Jayas Wal and Narendranath Law in a series 
of articles published in the Modern Review of Calcutta. 

The Mahabharata, the great Hindu epic, makes 
mention of kingless states or oligarchies. "In fact," 
says Mr. Banerjea, "all the Indian nations of these 
times possessed popular institutions of some type or 
other." 5 

Professor Rhys Davids has said, in his Buddhist 
India, that "the earliest Buddhist records reveal the 
survival side by side with more or less powerful mon- 
archies, of republics with either complete or modified 
independence." He names ten such republics in 
Northern India alone. In regard to the system of 
Government effective within one of the tribes that 
constituted a republic of their own, the same scholar 
observes: "The administrative and judicial business 
of the clan w^as carried out in public assembly, at 
which young and old were alike present in their common 
Mote Hall. A single chief — how and for what period 
chosen we do not know — was elected an officeholder, 
presiding over the sessions, or, if there were no 
sessions, over the State. He bore the title of Raja, 

* Vedic India, by Macdonnell & Keith. Vol. II. p. 210. 
^ Banerjea, p. 43. 



22 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

which must have meant something like the Roman 
Consul or the Greek Archon." ^ There is no evidence 
of the existence of slaves or serfs in these communities. 
Evidently all were freemen. 

(2) We have the evidence of Greek historians of 
the period who accompanied Alexander in his Asiatic 
Campaign, or who, after Alexander's death, repre- 
sented Greek monarchs at the courts of Indian rulers. 
"Even as late as the date of Alexander's invasion," 
says Mr. Banerjea, ''many of the nations of the Punjab 
lived under democratic institutions." Speaking of 
one of them called Ambasthas (Sambastai), the Greek 
author of Ancient India says: ''They lived in cities in 
which the democratic form of Government prevailed." 
"Curtius," adds Mr. Banerjea, "mentions a powerful 
Indian tribe, where the form of Government was 
democratic, and not regal." ^ Similarly Arrian, another 
Greek writer, is quoted as mentioning several other 
independent, self-governing tribal communities who 
lived under democratic forms of government and 
bravely resisted the advance of Alexander. One of 
them, when making submission to Alexander, told 
him that "they were attached more than any others 
to freedom and autonomy, and that their freedom 
they had preserved intact from the time Dionysos 
came to India until Alexander's invasion." ^ There 
were some others which had an aristocratic form of 
Government. In one of them mentioned in Ancient 

^ Buddhist India, p. 9. 

' Ancient India, Alexander's Invasion (McCrindle, p. 292), 
quoted by Mr. Banerjea. p. 44. 

^ Arrian, Anabasis (McCrindle), p. 154; quoted by Mr. 
Banerjea, p. 154. If the Greek writers were familiar with the 
conceptions of democracy and republicanism they knew what they 
meant by the use of these terms in relation to Indian institutions. 



DEMOCRACY IN INDIA 



23 



Indidy 'Hhe administration was in the hands of three 
hundred wise men." 

Another Greek writer, Diodoros, speaks of Patala as 
^'a City of great note with a poHtical constitution 
drawn on the same lines as the Spartan." It may 
safely be presumed that the Greek meant what he 
said. Chanakya, the author of a great treatise on 
political science, mentions many powerful oligarchies 
that existed down to the fourth century A. d. In one 
of the inscriptions, said to be of the sixth century A. d., 
the Malavas are referred to as living under a republican 
form of Government.^ 

(3) Even when kingship became an established 
institution the idea that the King was only a servant 
of the people survived for a long time. His " remunera- 
tion " was fixed at one-sixth of the produce. His sub- 
jects had the right to depose him or to turn him out 
if he failed in his duty. The authorities on these 
points are collected by Mr. Banerjea on pp. 72 and 73 
of his book. 

(4) Similarly many authorities are quoted by Mr. 
Banerjea on pp. 74 and 75 of his learned work showing 
that, according to Hindu ideals practised in ancient 
times, the king was not above the law. He was not 
an autocrat. He was as much bound by the law as 
his subjects. Laws were not made by kings. "Legis- 
lation was not among the powers entrusted to a king," 
says Mr. Banerjea. "There is no reference in early 
Vedic literature to the exercise of legislative authority 
by the king, though later it is an essential part of his 
duties," says Prof. Macdonell.^'' 

3 Banerjea. p. 46. 

^° Macdonell & Keith, Vedic Index, Vol. II, p. 214. 



24 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

(5) Assemblies and councils are quite frequently 
mentioned both in the Rig and the Atharva Vedas. 
''The popular assembly was a regular institution in the 
early years of the Buddhistic age (500 to 300 B.C.) " 
Chanakya mentions that in the King's Council the 
decision of the majority should prevail. ^^ Sukraniti 
lays down elaborate rules of procedure for the conduct 
of business in these assemblies. "The Council was 
the chief administrative authority in the kingdom. 
The King was supposed not to do anything without 
the consent of the Council." ^ In Kerala State, South 
India, during the first and second centuries of the 
Christian Era, there were five assemblies one of which 
consisted of ''representatives of the people summoned 
from various parts of the State." ^^ "From the Ceylon 
inscriptions we learn that in that island all measures 
were enacted by the King in Council, and all orders 
were issued by and under the authority of the Council." 

While all this is true of Ancient India, we cannot 
claim the existence of the same system of Government 
for mediaeval India. Even as regards Ancient India, 
all that is claimed is that it possessed as much dem- 
ocracy, if not more, as Ancient Greece or Ancient 
Rome. The non-existence of slavery in Northern 
India gives it therefore a superior character to that of 
the Ancient republics of Greece and Rome. In the 
South, it is believed slavery did exist. Coming to 
mediaeval times generally known as the Mohammedan 
period of Indian History consisting of two epochs, 
from 400 to 1200 A.D. and from 1200 to 1800 a.d., 

" Banerjea. p. 95. 

^ Footnote, Ihid., p. 96. Original authority quoted by Mr. 
Banerjea in footnote on p. 103. 
" Ihid.i p. 104. 



DEMOCRACY IN INDIA 



25 



we notice that the country enjoyed a durable kind of 
government, cities under absolute rule, and villages, 
as before, self-governed. The absolute rule was a 
benevolent or malevolent despotism according to the 
character of the Hindu or Moslem sovereign who 
reigned. But in the villages India maintained a 
democratic form of government right up to the begin- 
ning of British rule; and though under British rule, 
it has been practically superseded by the rule of the 
officials, yet in some parts of the country the spirit 
is still alive, as will appear from the following testimony 
recorded by Mr. Sidney Webb in his Preface to Mr. 
John Matthai's volume. Village Government in British 
India: 

''One able collector of long service in Central India 
informed me that he had been, until a few months 
before, totally unaware that anything of the sort 
existed in any of the villages over which he ruled. 
But being led to make specific inquiries on the subject, 
he had just discovered, in village ajter village, a distinctly 
elective if somewhat shadowy, local organization, in one 
or other form oj panchayat, which was, in fact, now and 
then giving decisions on matters oj communal concern, 
adjudicating civil disputes, and even condemning offenders 
to reparation and fine. Such a Local Government 
organization is, of course, 'extra-legal,' and has no 
statutory warrant, and, in the eyes of the British 
tribunals, possesses no authority whatever. But it 
has gone on silently existing, possibly for longer than 
the British Empire itself, and is still effectively func- 
tioning, merely by common consent and with the very 
real sanction of the local public opinion." , 

Mr. Matthai has also made a similar remark in 
Paragraph 22 of his book (Introductory), 

Village councils ordinarily called village panchayats 



26 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

have often been confounded with caste panchayats 
and that fact has been emphasised to prove that these 
Indian panchayats were or are anything but democratic. 
Mr. Sidney Webb and Mr. John Matthai both have 
controverted that position and upon good evidence. 
Says Mr. Webb: 

*'One suggestion that these fragments of indigenous 
Indian Local Government seem to afford is that we 
sometimes tend to exaggerate the extent to which the 
cleavages of caste have prevailed over the community 
of neighbourhood. How often is one informed, 'with 
authority/ that the panchayat of which we catch 
glimpses must be only a caste panchayat! It is plain, 
on the evidence, that however frequent and potent 
may be the panchayat of a caste, there have been and 
still are panchayats of men of different castes, exercising 
the functions of a Village Council over villagers of 
different castes. How widely prevalent these may be 
not even the Government of India can yet inform us. 
But if people would only look for traces of Village 
Government, instead of mainly for evidences of caste 
dominance, we might learn more on the subject." 

Later on in the same paragraph Mr. Webb remarks 
that, even where caste exists it has, in fact, permitted 
a great deal of common life, and that it is compatible 
with active village councils. 

Besides the evidence furnished by the texts of 
Hindu codes, law books and political treatises (like 
the Arthasastra of Kautalaya), and Niti Shastra, etc., 
other good evidence has been produced by Mr. Matthai 
in support of the above-mentioned proposition. 

In Paragraph 23 he refers to the Madras Epigraphic 
Report, 191 2-13, in support of the statement that 
*' there were village assemblies in South India in the 



DEMOCRACY IN INDIA 27 

tenth century a.d., which 'appear to have consisted 
of all the residents of a village including cultivators, 
professionals and merchants.'" 

"In the Private Diary oj Anandaranga Pillay, who 
served as agent to Dupleix, the French Governor in 
South India in the middle of the eighteenth century, 
there is an entry referring to a village meeting to 
consider a case of desecrating the village temple 'in 
which people of all castes — from the Brahman to the 
Pariah — took part.' " 

In Paragraph 24, he points out that a village council 
{Panchayat) might either be an assembly of all the 
inhabitants of the village or only a select committee 
consisting of representatives selected on some recog- 
nized principle. The first are common among less 
developed communities like those of the aboriginal 
tribes and the latter in more highly organized com- 
munities. 

Evidences of bigger assemblies consisting of repre- 
sentatives of more than one village, sometimes of 
more than one district, to decide cases of importance 
or dispute between whole villages are also cited in 
Paragraphs 26 and 27 and 32. On the strength of 
certain South Indian Inscriptions relating to the 
Tamil Kingdoms of the loth century a.d., it is stated 
that the administration of the village was carried on 
by no less than five or six committees, each vested with 
jurisdiction relating to certain definite departments of 
village life, though there was no fixed rule on the point. 
In Paragraphs 2)3 ^^^ 34 the mode of election to the 
committees and the qualifications for membership are 
set down in detail. The procedure seems to have 
been quite elaborate, though suited to the level of 



28 THE POLITICAL FUTITRE OF INDIA 

intelligence of the people concerned. These village 
councils and committees looked after education, 
sanitation, poor relief, public works, watch and ward, 
and the administration of justice. To describe the 
methods by which these departments of village life 
were administered by the village councils requires too 
much space, but we give two excerpts from Chap- 
ter II on education: 

*'The history of village education in India goes 
back perhaps to the beginnings of the village com- 
munity. The schoolmaster had a definite place 
assigned to him in the village economy, in the same 
manner as the headman, the accountant, the watch- 
man, and the artisans. He was an officer of the 
village community, paid either by rent-free lands or 
by assignments of grain out of the village harvest." 

''The outstanding characteristics of the schools of 
the Hindu village community were: (i) that they were 
democratic, and (2) that they were more secular than 
spiritual in their instruction and their general char- 
acter. . . . Nevertheless, when we speak of the 
democratic character of these early Hindu schools, it 
is to be understood that they were democratic only 
in this sense, that they were open not merely to the 
priestly caste but to all the four superior castes alike. 
There was never any question of admitting into the 
schools those who lay outside the regular caste system 
whose touch would have meant pollution, nor to the 
great aboriginal populations of the country." 

"This is very similar to the public schools in the 
Southern States, in the United States, where schools for 
the white children are closed to coloured children and 
vice versa." 

From what has been stated above it appears that 
the general impression that democratic institutions are 
entirely foreign to India is nothing but the survival of 



DEMOCRACY IN INDIA 29 

a prejudice originally due to ignorance of Indian 
history. In collecting his evidence Mr. Matthai has 
principally drawn upon South Indian sources. There 
can be no doubt that abundant evidence of a similar 
kind is available as regards North India and is waiting 
to be collected, collated and sifted by other Matthais. 
We do not contend that India had the same kind of 
representative institutions as Modern Europe has. 
In fact no part of the world had. They are all recent 
developments. The democratic nature of an institu- 
tion does not depend on the methods of election but 
on the people's right to express their will, directly, or 
through their representatives, in the management of 
their public affairs. It is clear that that idea was 
never altogether absent from Indian life either in 
theory or in practise. Even under the most absolute 
autocracies, the bulk of the people managed their 
collective affairs themselves. They organised and 
maintained schools; arranged and paid .for sanitation; 
built public works; provided for watch and ward; 
administered justice, and for all these purposes raised 
revenues and spent them in a democratic way. They 
did so, not only as regards the internal affairs of a 
village, but applied the same principles in the larger 
life of their district or districts. Such a people cannot 
be said to have always lived a life dictated and held 
together by force. Nor can it be said with justice 
that the introduction of modern democratic methods 
in such a country, among such a people, would be the 
introduction of an exotic plant, with the spirit and 
working of which it will take them centuries to be 
famihar. 



Ill 

THE PRESENT IDEALS 

The wishes, the desires, and the interests 
of the people of these countries [speaking 
of German colonies] themselves must be 
the dominant factor in settHng their future 
government. 

David Lloyd George 

"Causes and Aims of the War." Speech 
deUvered at Glasgow, on being presented 
with the freedom of that city, June 29, 
1917. 

Every nation has a fundamental right to determine, 
fix and work out her own ideals. Any interference 
with this right by individuals or nations of foreign 
origin is unnatural and unjust. The consent of the 
governed is the only logical and just basis of govern- 
ments. These principles have been reiterated with 
added force and masterly eloquence by President 
Wilson in his addresses during the War. They have 
been accepted and adopted by the Allied statesmen. 
No statesman or publicist of standing in any of the 
Allied countries can dare question the principles. 
The difficulty, however, arises when we come to 
apply them practically. At this point the practical 
poUtician's genius for diplomacy discovers flaws that 
proyi4Q excuses for the non-appUcatipn of those 



THE PRESENT IDEALS 3I 

principles if such course seems helpful to his nation or 
his sovereign. 

President Wilson has asseverated that "the day of 
conquest and aggrandisement is gone," which, in plain 
language, means that the day of Imperialism is over. 
And, in conformity with the principle stated in the 
Declaration of Independence, that "All nations have 
the right to assume among the powers of the earth the 
separate and equal station to which the laws of nature 
and nature's God entitle them," President Wilson has 
also said that "every people have a right to choose the 
sovereignty under which they shall live"; that "na- 
tional aspirations must be respected, and that 'self 
determination' is not a mere phrase; it is an imperative 
principle of action, which statesmen will henceforth 
ignore at their peril." Yet as practical men we must 
not ignore the facts of life. The world is not at once 
going to be an ideal place to live in even if it may 
become one. It may be that the advanced nations of 
the earth which just now divide the political and 
economic control of the world between themselves 
may accept the underlying policy of the following 
statement (of President Wilson) that 

"This war had its roots in the disregard of the rights 
of small nations and of nationalities which lacked the 
union and the force to make good their claim to deter- 
mine their own allegiance and their own forms of 
political life." 

and the proposed League of Nations might see that 
a continuance of the injustice thus far done to small 
or backward nations is no longer permitted. Being 
practical men, however, we cannot build on the assump- 



32 THE POLITICAL FUTTTRE OF INDIA 

tion that at the end of this war the world is at once to 
be transformed into a paradise and that full justice 
will be done to all nations and all peoples alike. We 
already notice a tendency to restrict the application 
and the enforcement of these principles to the nations 
of Europe by the more frequent use of the term "free 
nations." "Free nations" do not need to be freed. 
It will be wise, therefore not to be carried off our feet 
by these declarations and statements. Mr. Montagu 
and Lord Chelmsford have pointedly reminded us of 
the Indian saying, "hanoz Delhi Dur Ast" (i.e. "Delhi 
is yet far away"). But even if they had not done so 
we were not so simple as to be swept away by the 
mere language of the war declarations. The wording 
of the announcement of August 20, 1917, itself did not 
leave us in doubt about the truth of the saying quoted 
by Mr. Montagu and Lord Chelmsford. We have, 
therefore, to test our ideals and aspirations by the 
touchstone of practicability and expediency. Happily 
for us there is, in theory, at least, a full agreement 
between the political goal set up by the Indian Na- 
tionalists of the Congress school (since endorsed by 
the Home Rulers) and that set up by the authors of 
the announcement of August 20th. This goal is 
"Self- Government within the Empire on terms of 
equality with the other parts of it," in the language of 
the Congress school or, "Responsible Government as 
an integral part of the British Empire," in the language 
of the announcement. There is a party of Indian poli- 
ticians who want complete independence, but at present 
their number is so limited that we need not take 
serious consideration of their position in the matter. 
The vast bulk of the educated classes are agreed: 



THE PRESENT IDEALS 



33 



(a) That they are content to remain within the 

British Empire if they are allowed a status of 
equality with the self-governing dominions of 
the Empire. 

(b) That what they want is an autonomous Govern- 

ment on the lines of Canada, Australia and 
the South African Union. 

(c) That they do not want any affiliation with any 

other Foreign Government. 
Much has been written and said about the loyalty 
of the people of India to the British Government. 
Opinions, however, differ as to its nature. Some say 
it is the loyalty of a helpless people or, in other words, 
a loyalty dictated by fear or force. Others say it is 
the loyalty of opportunism. The British maintain 
that the loyalty is the outcome of a genuine and 
sincere appreciation of the blessings of the British 
Empire. Be that as it may, it is in the interest of 
both to bring about circumstances and conditions 
which would transform this loyalty whatever its nature 
into one of genuine affection and interest. The 
announcement of August 20, 191 7, may be considered 
as a first step towards the creation of such loyalty, 
but much will depend on the steps that are taken to 
give practical effect to the policy embodied in the 
said announcement and on the spirit in which the 
proposed reforms are carried out. Mr. Montagu and 
Lord Chelmsford's conception of the ''eventual future 
of India is a sisterhood of states, self-governing in all 
matters of purely local or provincial interest, in some 
cases corresponding to existing provinces, in others 
perhaps modified in area according to the character 
and economic interests of their people. Over this 



34 THE POLITICAL FTTTHRE OF INDIA 

congeries of States should preside a Central Govern- 
ment increasingly representative of and responsible 
to the people of all of them; dealing with matters, 
both internal and external, of common interest to the 
whole of India; acting as arbiter in interstate relations 
and representing the interests of all India on equal 
terms with the self-governing units of the British 
Empire." ^ The only changes that we would propose 
in the language of this statement are (i) the omission 
of the word "increasingly" which is rather misplaced 
in the conception of an ideal, and (ii) the substitution 
of the word "Commonwealth" in place of "Empire." 
His Highness the Aga Khan considers the use of the 
term "responsible" government instead of "self- 
government" in the announcement as unfortunate 
because it carries the technical meaning of a govern- 
ment responsible for its existence to an assembly 
elected by the people. On the other hand, self-govern- 
ment can comprise many and varied forms of expression 
of the popular will. Further, he is convinced that the 
words "responsible government" were used in order to 
carry with the Secretary of State and the Prime 
Minister some more conservative members of the 
small war cabinet. It was camouflaged so that the 
Executive government hereafter might contain English- 
men, while at the same time the administration became 
sufiiciently liberal to be responsible to the people. 
With due respect to the Aga Khan we do not see the 
logical connection between the two. Responsible 
government may or may not involve the necessary 
inclusion of Englishmen in the Cabinet. Although 
we may not approve of the interpretation of the 
* Paragraph 349 of the Report. 



THE PRESENT IDEALS 



35 



expression "responsible" government given to it by 
the authors of the report, in our judgment its use as 
an ideal to be attained expresses more forcibly the 
right of the people to choose their government than 
the use of the general term "self government" would. 



IV 

THE STAGES 

There is no protection for life, property, 
or money in a State where the criminal is 
more powerful than the law. The law of 
nations is no exception, and, until it has 
been vindicated, the peace of the world will 
always be at the mercy of any nation whose 
professors have assiduously taught it to be- 
lieve that no crime is wrong so long as it 
leads to the aggrandisement and enrichment 
of the country to which they owe allegiance. 

David Lloyd George 

"No Halfway House." Speech delivered 
at Gray's Inn, December 14, 191 7. 

In the chapter on ideals we have shown that there 
is almost complete agreement between the bulk of 
Indian educated men and the British authorities as 
to the immediate goal of Government in India. There 
is no such agreement, however, as regards the stages 
by which that goal is to be reached, nor on the steps 
which should be immediately taken to carry us to the 
first stage. The four formulas by which Mr. Montagu 
and Lord Chelmsford profess to be guided in their 
recommendations are not accepted in their entirety by 
the spokesmen of the Indian people, These formulas 
are; 



THE STAGES 37 

(i) There should be as far as possible complete 
popular control in local bodies and the largest possible 
independence for them of outside control. (Paragraph 
188.) 

(2) The provinces are the domain in which the 
earlier steps towards the progressive realization of 
responsible government should be taken. Some meas- 
ure of responsibility should be given at once, and our 
aim is to give complete responsibility as soon as con- 
ditions permit. This involves at once giving the 
provinces the largest measure of independence, legisla- 
tive, administrative, and financial, of the Government 
of India which is compatible with the due discharge 
by the latter of its own responsibiUties. (Paragraph 

189.) 

(3) The Government of India must remain wholly 
responsible to Parliament, and saving such responsi- 
bility, its authority in essential matters must remain 
indisputable pending experience of the effect of the 
changes now to be introduced in the provinces. In 
the meantime the Indian Legislative Council should be 
enlarged and made more representative and its oppor- 
tunities of influencing government increased. (Para- 
graph 190.) 

(4) In proportion as the foregoing changes take 
effect, the control of Parliament and the Secretary of 
State over the Government of India and provincial 
Governments must be relaxed. (Paragraph 191.) 

There is no difficulty in accepting the first and the 
fourth formulas. There is some complaint that the 
actual steps recommended for immediate adoption to 
give effect to the policy of the first formula are not in 
keeping with the spirit of the formula and are inade- 
quate. But this we can reserve for future consideration. 

No objection can be taken to the first and the last 
sentences of the second formula; though there is a 
great divergence of opinion as regards the content of 



38 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

the second. It is maintained by some, and their 
number is by no means small/ that full responsibility 
should be conceded to the provinces at once and that 
there is nothing in the conditions mentioned in the 
report which justifies the postponement thereof. 

The third formula, however, is the one about which 
there is not even a semblance of agreement. All 
political parties and all qualified persons in India (we 
mean, of course, Indians of Indian origin) are agreed 
that the assumptions and presumptions upon which 
this formula is based are wrong and unacceptable. 
Native Indian opinion is fairly unanimous on the point. 

There are some who claim full autonomy at once. 
There are others who claim full autonomy except as 
regards foreign relations, the control of native States, 
the Army and the Navy. All insist that a beginning 
of responsible Government must be made in the 
Central Government also, and point out the absolute 
necessity of conceding some measure, even if not full, 
of fiscal autonomy. They can see no reason why 
'Hhe Government of India must remain wholly re- 
sponsible to Parliament" and why ''its authority must 
remain indisputable." On these matters Indian 
opinion joins issue with the distinguished authors of 
the report. We will revert to the subject in another 
chapter. 

^ The non-official members of Bengal, Bombay and the United 
Provinces have made that demand, which has been endorsed by the 
Indian National Congress and the All-Indian Muslim League. 



V 

THE CONDITIONS OF THE PROBLEM 

Let us, at any rate, make victory so com- 
plete that national liberty, whether for great 
nations or for small nations, can never be 
challenged. That is the ordinary law. The 
small man, the poor man, has the same 
protection as the powerful man. So the 
little nation must be as well guarded and 
protected as the big nation. 

David Lloyd George 

"The Pan-German Dream." Speech 
deUvered at Queen's Hall on the third 
anniversary of the Declaration of War, 
August 4, 191 7. 

The eminent authors of the report have devoted an 
entire chapter to a consideration of what they call the 
"conditions of the problem." These may be con- 
sidered under two different heads: (a) those that 
necessitate a rather radical reorganisation of the 
Government of India; (b) those that prevent the 
authors from recommending immediate responsible 
government and justify the limitations of their scheme. 

IMMENSITY OF THE PROBLEM AND THE GRAVITY 
OF THE TASK 

Before we take up the two sets of facts relied upon by 
them in support of either position we may express our 

39 



40 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

general agreement with them as regards the gravity of 
the task and the immensity of the problem. The size 
of the country and the vastness of its population are 
the measure of the extent of the problem. The ex- 
istence of powerful vested interests at present possessed 
by the ruling race which may be interfered with by 
extended changes in the system of Government are 
the measure of its gravity. ''The welfare and happi- 
ness of hundreds of millions of people," which the 
authors say are in issue cannot be adequately provided 
for by any autocratic system of Government however 
benevolent its purpose, and however magnificent its 
organisation. An ''absolute government" is an ana- 
chronism, but when it is foreign it is doubly so. To 
bring out "the best in the people" for their own 
"welfare and happiness" as well as for that of mankind 
in general, it is necessary that the people should be 
free to develop on their own lines, manage their own 
affairs, evolve their own life, subject only to such 
restrictions as the general interests of humanity 
demand; and subject to such guidance as the better 
placed and more experienced people of the earth can 
furnish. 

The people of India are willing to be guided in their 
development towards modern democracy by the people 
of Great Britain and they would be grateful for their 
cooperation in this difficult task, but they must be 
made to realize that the task is their own and that 
they should undertake it in a spirit of courageous 
faith — faith in their destiny, faith in their ability to 
achieve it, and faith in the friendship of the great 
British nation. The test of all measures in relation 
to the Government of India in future should be, not 



THE CONDITIONS OF THE PROBLEMS 41 

how far the people of India can cooperate, how far 
they can be entrusted with responsibility, but how 
far it is necessary in their interests to control and check 
them. The difference between the two points of view 
is fundamental and important. Mr. Montagu and 
Lord Chelmsford have looked at the problem from the 
former point of view; the Indian leaders want them 
to look at it from the latter. They want the great 
British nation to recognise the justice of India's claim 
to manage her own afifairs, and to keep in their hands 
in future only such control as is absolutely necessary 
(a) to enable the Indian people to conduct their busi- 
ness efficiently and successfully, (b) to make them 
fulfill their obligations to the great Commonwealth 
of nations of which they hope soon to be a component 
part. As long as British statesmen insist on looking 
at the problem from the former point of view, they 
wiU make mistakes and raise a not entirely unreason- 
able suspicion of their motives. The moment they 
adopt the other point of view, they remove all grounds 
of distrust and create an atmosphere of friendliness in 
which they can deal with the problem in a spirit of 
mutual trust, absolute frankness and candid per- 
spicacity. There are many contentions of the British 
statesmen which the educated Indians would gladly 
admit to be valid and necessary were they sure that 
their admission would not be used against them by 
the power whom they habitually regard as their ad- 
versary. There is much in this report which could 
at once be struck out if both parties were actuated by 
feeHngs of mutual trust and friendliness. It cannot 
be denied that many of the proposed restrictions on 
the power of the popular assembUes and the would-be 



42 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OE INDIA 

Indian Administrators are the outcome of distrust. 
It is no wonder then that the Indian leaders in their 
turn are not quite sure of the face value of the many 
professions of good will that characterise the scheme. 
It is for the removal of this distrust that we appeal as 
earnestly as we can to the better mind of Great Britain. 

In looking at the conditions of the problem, there is 
another fallacy which underlies the oft-exaggerated 
estimates of the blessings of British rule in India by 
British statesmen and British pubUcists. They com- 
pare the India of today with the India of 1757 and at 
once jump to the conclusion that ''the moral and 
material civilisation of the Indian people has made 
more progress in the last fifty years than during all 
the preceding centuries of their history." The proper 
comparison is of the Great Britain, the France, the 
United States, the Germany, the Italy and the Japan 
of 1757, with the India of that year and of India's 
progress within the last century and a half, or even 
within the last 50 years, with the progress of these 
countries in the same period. We have no desire to 
withhold credit for what Great Britain has done 
in India, but what she has misdone or could have 
done but failed to do, by virtue of her rule in India 
being absolute and thus necessarily conditioned by 
limitations inevitable in a system of absolute rule, 
should not be forgotten. 

The Indian critics of British rule in India have 
repeatedly pointed out that what they condemned 
and criticised was the system and not the personnel of 
the Government, and the distinguished authors of the 
Report *Wery frankly recognise that the character of 
political institutions reacts upon the character of the 



THE CONDITIONS OF THE PROBLEMS 43 

people" and that the exercise of responsibiUties calls 
forth capacity for it (Paragraph 130), which mainly 
accounts for the conditions that serve as reasons for 
withholding responsible government from the Indian 
people. In discussing ''the basis of responsibility" 
Mr, Montagu and Lord Chelmsford very properly 
point out that the qualities necessary for it are only 
developed by exercise and that though ''they are 
greatly affected by education, occupation and social 
organisation" "they ultimately rest on the traditions 
and habits of the people." "We cannot go simply to 
statistics for the measure of these things." Yet, un- 
fortunately, it is exactly these statistics that seem to 
have influenced them largely in the framing of their 
half-hearted measures. The two dominating condi- 
tions which obsess them are (i) that the immense 
masses of the people are poor, ignorant and helpless 
far beyond the standards of Europe; and (2) that 
there runs through Indian society a series of cleavages 
— of religion, race and caste — which constantly 
threaten its solidarity. 

We admit the existence of these conditions, but we 
do not admit that they are an effective bar to the 
beginnings of responsible government even on that 
scale on which European countries had it when the 
conditions of life in those countries were no better 
than they are now in India. 

It is said that 226 of 244 millions of people in British 
India live a rural life: "agriculture is the one great 
occupation of the people" and "the proportion of 
these who even give a thought to matters beyond the 
horizon of their villages is very small." We ask did 
not similar conditions exist in Great Britain, France 



44 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

and Germany before the inauguration of the Industrial 
Revolution, and if they did, did they stand in the way 
of their people getting responsible government or 
parliamentary institutions? Everyone knows what 
the conditions in France were in years immediately 
preceding the Revolution. Italy was no better off 
in the middle of the nineteenth century. Perhaps it 
is not much better even today. The masses of the 
people in these and other countries of Europe, including 
Great Britain, were far more ignorant, poor and 
helpless when these countries obtained parliamentary 
government than they are in India today. And the 
authors of the report are not unaware that similar 
concerns are perhaps the main interests of the popula- 
tion of some country districts in the United Kingdom 
even today. In several of the Balkan States, Rou- 
mania, Serbia and Bulgaria — in Italy and in the 
component parts of Russia — the conditions are no 
better, yet their right to autonomous government, 
nay, even to absolute independence, is hardly ques- 
tioned. Moreover, as has been pointed out by Mr. 
Sidney Webb, 

"It is a mistake to assume that a land of villages 
necessarily means what is usually implied by the 
phrase, a people of villagers. In truth, India, for all 
its villages, has been also, at all known periods, and 
to-day still is, perhaps, to a greater extent than ever 
before, what Anglo-Saxon England, for instance was 
not or the South African Republic in the days before 
gold had been discovered, and what the Balkan 
peninsula even at the present time may perhaps not 
be, namely a land of flourishing cities, of a distinctly 
urban civilization, exhibiting not only splendid archi- 
tecture, and the high development of the manufactur- 



THE CONDITIONS OF THE PROBLEMS 45 

ing arts made possible by the concentration of popula- 
tion and wealth, but likewise — what is much more 
important — a secretion of thought, an accumulation 
of knowledge, and a development of literature and 
philosophy which are not in the least like the char- 
acteristic products of villages as we know them in 
Europe or America. And to-day, although the teeming 
crowds who throng the narrow lanes of Calcutta or 
Benares, Bombay or Poona, Madras or Hyderabad, 
or even the millions who temporarily swarm at Hardwar 
or Allahabad or Puri may include only a small per- 
centage of the whole population, yet the Indian social 
order does not seem to be, in the European under- 
standing of the phrase, either on its good or on its bad 
side, essentially one of the villagers. The distinction 
may be of importance, because the Local Government 
developed by peoples of villages, as we know of them 
in Anglo-Saxon England, in the early days of the 
South African RepubUc, and in the Balkan States, is 
of a very different type from that which takes root and 
develops, even in the villages, in those nations which 
have also a City life, centers of religious activity, 
colleges and universities, and other 'nodal points,' 
from which emanate, through popular literature, pil- 
grimages, and the newspaper press, slow but far- 
spreading waves of thought and feeling, and aspirations 
which it is fatal to ignore." ^ 

We have also quoted, in the chapter on ''Democracy 
in India," the statement of Morse Stephens, about 
the condition of the people of Europe in the eighteenth 
century. 

EDUCATIONAL BACKWARDNESS 

"The Educational returns," remark the authors of 
the Report, "tell us much the same story," viz., the 

* Village Government in British India^ by John Matthai. Preface 
by Sidney Webb, p. xv. 



46 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

appalling dissimilarity of conditions in Europe and in 
India. While it is painfully true that the percentage 
of illiteracy in India is greater than in any of the 
countries of Europe, we cannot admit that that fact is 
a fatal bar to the beginnings of responsible government 
in India or to the granting of a democratic constitution 
to the country. Literacy is, no doubt, a convenient, 
but by no means a sure index of the intelligence of the 
people, even much less of their character. The political 
status of a country is determined more by intelligence 
and character than by literacy. In these the people 
of India are inferior to none. By that we do not 
mean that they are possessed of the same kind of 
political responsibility as the people of the United 
Kingdom or of France or of Germany or of the United 
States, but only that by intelligence and character 
they are quite fitted to start on the road to responsible 
government, at least to such kind as was conceded 
for the first time to Canada, Australia, Italy, the 
Balkan States, Austria, Hungary, etc. The illiteracy 
of the masses may be a good reason for not introducing 
universal suffrage, but it is hardly a valid reason for 
refusing a kind of constitution which may place India 
in the same position, in the matter of responsible 
Government, as Great Britain, France, Austria- 
Hungary, Italy and the United States were when 
those countries showed the same percentage of illiteracy. 
Literacy has nowhere been the test of political power. 
Burma had almost no illiteracy when the British took 
possession of it; its population was absolutely homo- 
geneous and the solidarity of the nation ran no risk 
from "cleavages of religion, race and caste." Even 
today Burma has the highest figures of literacy in the 



THE CONDITIONS OF THE PROBLEMS 47 

whole of British India. In that respect it occupies a 
higher position than Roumania, Bulgaria, Serbia, 
Greece, many of the Russian States and perhaps even 
Italy and Hungary and possibly some of the South 
American Republics. In the matter of race and religion, 
too, its position is better than that of the countries men- 
tioned, yet the authors of the Report do not propose to 
concede to it even such beginnings of responsible gov- 
ernment as they are prepared to grant to the other 
provinces of India. The fact is that mere literacy 
does not play an important part in the awakening of 
political consciousness in a people. It is a useful 
ingredient of character required for the exercise of 
political power but by no means essential. 

POVERTY 

The argument based on poverty is of still less force. 
On the other hand, it is the best reason why the people 
of India should have the power to determine and 
carry out their fiscal policy. We hope the admissions 
made in Paragraph 135 of the Report which we bodily 
reproduce ^ will once for all dispose of the silly state- 
ment, so often repeated even by men who ought to 
know better, that materially India has been highly 

' "The Indian Government compiles no statistics showing the 
distribution of wealth, but such incomplete figures as we have 
obtained show that the number of persons enjoying a substantial 
income is very small. In one province the total number of persons 
who enjoy an income of £66 a year derived from other sources 
than land is 30,000; in another province 20,000, The revenue 
and rent returns also show how small the average agricultural hold- 
ing is. According to one estimate, the number of landlords whose 
income derived from their proprietary holdings exceeds £20 a year 
in the United Provinces is about 126,000, out of a population of 
forty-eight millions. It is evident that the curve of wealth descends 
very steeply, and that enormous masses of the population have little 
to spare for more than the necessaries of life." 



48 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

prosperous under British rule. If so, how is it that in 
the language of the Secretary of State for India and 
the Viceroy ''enormous masses of the population have 
Httle to spare for more than the necessaries of life"? 
What about the prosperity of a province, one of the 
biggest in India (the United Provinces), in which the 
number of landlords (not tenants and farmers) whose 
income derived from their proprietary holdings exceeds 
£20 ($100 a year, which comes to 30 cents a day for 
the whole family), is about 126,000 out of a population 
of 48 millions! 

Acceptance of the argument of poverty as sufficient 
to deprive people of political right is putting a premium 
on it which is hardly creditable to the political ethics 
of the twentieth century. It is the poorest and the 
most ignorant in the community who most egregiously 
suffer at the hands of autocracy. It is they who 
require protection from it. The wealthy and the 
educated know how to placate the bureaucrat and 
get what they want. It is the poor who pay the 
penalty of political helplessness, yet, curiously, it is 
for them and in their interest that the English Govern- 
ment in India proposes to withhold the power of the 
purse from the proposed Indian Councils and insists 
on denying the Indian people even the elements of 
responsible government. While we admit the general 
justice and accuracy of the observations made under 
the head of ''extent of interest in political questions," 
"political capacity of the rural population," we fail 
to see anything in them which justifies the conclusion 
that the interests of the classes not politically minded 
will be safer in the hands of the British officer, and on 
the whole better protected by him than by his educated 



THE CONDITIONS OF THE PROBLEMS 49 

countrymen who are likely to get the power in case of 
responsible government being conceded now. In our 
judgment no greater argument for the immediate 
grant of a substantial step in the direction of complete 
responsible government throughout India and in all 
spheres of government, could be advanced than what 
is involved in the following observation of the authors 
of the joint Report: 

"The rural classes have the greatest stake in the 
country because they contribute most to its revenues; 
but they are poorly equipped for politics and do not 
at present wish to take part in them. Among them are 
a few great landlords and a larger number of yeoman 
farmers. They are not ill-fitted to play a part in affairs, 
but with few exceptions they have not yet done so. 
But what is perhaps more important to appreciate 
than the mere content of political life in India is its 
rate of growth. No one who has observed Indian life 
during even the past five years can doubt that the 
growth is rapid and is real. It is beginning to affect 
the large landholders: here and there are signs of its 
beginning to affect even the villages. But recent 
events, and above all the war, have given it a new 
earnestness and a more practical character. Men are 
coming to realise more clearly that India's political 
future is not to be won merely by fine phrases: and 
that it depends on the capacity of her people them- 
selves to face difficulties and to dispose of them. 
Hence comes the demand for compulsory education, 
for industries, for tariffs, for social reform, for social, 
public and even military service," 

In the next paragraph, the authors approvingly 
give an extract from an official report in which it is 
frankly admitted that the rural population "may not 
be vocal, but they are certainly not voiceless." The 
last meeting of the Indian Congress was attended by 



50 THE POLITICAL FUTIIRE OF INDIA 

700 farmer delegates. Thousands of farmers have 
joined the Home Rule Leagues. The statement that 
*' hitherto they have regarded the official as their 
representative in the Councils of the Government" is 
entirely devoid of any truth. In their eyes the official 
is the Government itself. Some of them may think 
that the official represents the Government, but to say 
that they regard the official as ^^ their representative in 
the Councils of the Government" is a mere travesty 
of truth. The paragraph on the "interests of the 
ryot" bristles with so many unwarranted assumptions 
that we must enter an emphatic protest against its 
misleading nature. 

But it gives us pleasure to accord our whole- 
hearted support to the following statement with 
which the paragraph opens : 

"It is just because the Indian ryot is inarticulate 
and has not been directly represented in our delibera- 
tions that we feel bound to emphasise the great claim 
he has upon our consideration. The figure of the 
individual cultivator does not often catch the eye 
of the Governments in Simla and Whitehall. It is 
chiefly in the mass that they deal with him, as a con- 
sumer of salt or of piece-goods, or unhappily too often 
as the victim of scarcity or disease." 

It is true that "the district officer and his lieu- 
tenants" are in a position to know the difficulties that 
beset the ryot and his very human needs. But of 
what good is this knowledge of the district officer and 
his lieutenants to him if it has neither provided for 
the education of his children nor made any provision 
for his employment in occupations other than agricul- 
ture; nor saved him from the intricacies of the law; 



THE CONDITIONS OF THE PROBLEMS 51 

nor protected him from the ubiquitous salt tax; nor 
raised his wages proportionately to the increase of 
prices; nor yet put him in a position to assert his 
human rights and to obtain redress for his human, too 
human, wrongs. If we examine a little more carefully 
the merits of what is claimed to have been done for 
him so far by ''an official Government," we will find 
that the claim is by no means established. 

We have no desire to deny that among the foreign 
officers of the British Government in India there are 
and have been a great many who were genuinely 
anxious to help the ryot and do all which is claimed to 
have been done for him in this paragraph, but that 
they have been unable to do anything worth men- 
tioning will be admitted by every right-minded official.^ 
The reasons for their failure were not of their making. 
The laws of the land made by the British legislators 
fresh from the Inns of Court, the spirit of the admin- 
istration and the system of land taxation have effec- 
tively prevented them from doing many of the things 
which they might otherwise have liked to do. We 
are sorry that the eminent statesmen responsible for 
the report should have been the unconscious instru- 
ments of producing an entirely wrong impression by 
the statements in this paragraph. If the statements 
are true, India must be a veritable paradise and the lot 
of the Indian ryot enviable. But we know, and the 
authors of the Report knew it as well, and they have 
stated in so many words that it is not so. We can 
quote any number of authorities to show that the 
Indian ryot is the most pitiable figure in the whole 

» See Punjab in Peace and War, by S. S. Thorborn, London, 
1904. 



52 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

length and breadth of India, if not in the whole world. 
This is not the place to quote the easily accessible 
opinions of eminently quahfied and highly trustworthy 
British writers and adminstrators on the subject.'* 
The English ojQ&cial Government has no doubt professed 
to do all it claims to have done for the ryot, but how 
far it has benefited him in these directions is another 
story. To ask credit for having provided him with a 
system of law ''simple, cheap and certain," or for 
having established schools and dispensaries within 
reasonable distance of his residence; or for even having 
looked after his cattle, by the provision of grazing 
lands; or for having supplied wood for his implements 
is to run violently in the face of facts to the contrary. 
These are verily his principal complaints against 
British rule. The official Government is certainly 
entitled to some credit for having started the coopera- 
tive credit societies and a few cooperative rural banks 
for the benefit of the peasantry, but the reform is so 
belated and at present plays such an insignificant part 
in the rural economy of India that it seems hardly 
worth mentioning or discussing.^ 

But even assuming that the official Government 
has so far done all that for the ryot, what reason is 
there to insinuate that the Government of the people 
will fail to do it for him in the future or will not do it 
so well as or even better, than has been heretofore 
done by the bureaucracy? It is quite a gratuitous 
assumption that in future he will be required to do 
all these things for himself. Even in the most advanced 

* They are collected in England's Debt to India, by the present 
author. New York, B. W. Huebsch, 191 7. 

^ See Sir D. Hamilton, Calcutta Rmew, July, 1916. 



THE CONDITIONS OF THE PROBLEMS 53 

democracies in the world the peasantry or the masses 
of the people do not do these things for themselves. 
Most of these things are done by officials. The only 
difference is that in a responsible government the 
officials are the servants of the people while in an 
absolute government they are their masters. We are 
really surprised at the presumption of the British 
bureaucrat, in posing as the special friend of the Indian 
masses as against their own educated countrymen. 
The experience of the past does not support the claim 
and there is absolutely no reason to assume that it 
will be different in the future. A mere cursory 
glance at the resolutions of the Indian National Con- 
gress passed continuously for a period of thirty years, 
will show how persistently and earnestly the educated 
classes have been pleading inter alia for (a) compulsory 
and free education, (b) for technical instruction in 
vocations, (c) for the reduction of the salt tax and the 
land tax, (d) for the raising of the minimum incomes 
liable to income tax, (e) for the provision of pasture 
lands, (f) for the comforts of the third-class railway 
travelling public, (g) for the milder administration of 
the forest laws, (h) for the reform of the Police, etc. 
All these years the bureaucracy did nothing for the 
ryot and now they pose as his special friends, whose 
continuance in power and in office is necessary for his 
protection from the politically minded middle classes. 
We are a friend neither of the landlord nor of the 
capitalist. We beheve that the ryot and the working 
men in India as elsewhere are being exploited and 
robbed by the classes in possession of the means 
of production and distribution. We would whole- 
heartedly support any scheme which would open a 



54 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

way to a just and righteous distribution of wealth and 
land in India and which would insure the ryot and the 
working man his rightful place in the body poHtic. 
We would not mind the aid of the foreign bureaucracy 
toward that end if we could be sure that the bureau- 
cracy would or could do it. But we have no doubts 
in the matter that it cannot be done. The bureaucracy 
has so far played into the hands of the plutocrat. 
They have served first their own capitahsts and then 
the capitahsts and landlords of India. Some among 
them have tried to do a little for the submerged classes, 
the poor ryot and the ill-paid sweated laborer, but 
their efforts were of no consequence. They have 
failed and their failure is writ large on the face of 
the ryot. We are not sanguine that the politically 
minded classes when they get power will immediately 
rehabihtate the ryot and give him his due. We have 
no hope of that kind. Yet we unhesitatingly support 
the demand of the politically minded classes for a 
responsible government in India. In our judgment, 
that is the only way to raise the masses to a conscious- 
ness of their rights and responsibihties. The experience 
of the West tells us that in that way and in that way 
alone lies salvation. Political consciousness must 
travel from the classes to the masses and the longer 
the inauguration of popular Government is delayed, 
the greater the delay in the awakening of the ryot 
and the working man. Absolutism must first give 
way and transfer its power to the politically minded 
classes, then will come the turn of the masses to demand 
their rights and compel compliance. We can see no 
risk of a greater harm or injury to the masses of India 
from the transference of power from the hands of a 



THE CONDITIONS OF THE PROBLEMS 55 

close bureaucracy of foreigners into the hands of the 
educated and propertied oligarchy of their own country- 
men. Even in countries Hke Great Britain, America 
and France it is the educated and the propertied 
classes who rule. Why then this hubbub about the 
impropriety and danger of giving power to the same 
classes in India? Why are the representatives of 
landlordism and capitaHsm in the British House of 
Lords and among the ranks of Imperial Anglo-Indians 
so solicitous of the welfare of the Indian masses, when 
they have for so long persistently denied justice to 
the proletariat of their own country? It is a strange 
phenomenon to see the champions of privilege and 
status, the defenders of capitalism and landlordism, 
the advocates of the rights of property, the upholders 
of caste in Great Britain, spending so much powder 
and shot to protect the Indian ryot from the prospective 
exploitation of him by the Indian Brahmin and the 
Indian Banya ^ (the priest and the capitalist). Let 
the British Brahmin and the British Banya first begin 
by doing justice to the proletariat of their own country 
and then it will be time for them to convince the Indian 
of their altruism and honesty of purpose in obstructing 
the inauguration of responsible government in India in 
the interests of the Indian proletariat. In this con- 
nection the authors of the Report make some pertinent 
observations which deserve to be quoted. After speak- 
ing of *' religious animosities and social cleavages" 
and the duty of discouraging them the authors say: 

"Nor are we without hope that the reforms will 
themselves help to provide the remedy. We would 
not be misunderstood. Representative institutions 

* " Banya " in Hindustan means " trader." 



56 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

in the West, where all are equal at the ballot box, have 
checked but not aboUshed social exclusiveness. We 
do not make a higher claim for similar institutions in 
India than that they will help to soften the rigidity 
of the caste-system. But we hope that these incidents 
of it which lead to the permanent degradation and 
ostracism of the lowest castes will tend to disappear in 
proportion to the acceptance of the ideas on which the 
new constitution rests. There is a further point. 
An autocratic administration, which does not share 
the religious ideas of the people, obviously finds its 
sole safe ground in leaving the whole department of 
traditional social usage severely alone. In such 
matters as child-marriage, it is possible that through 
excess of caution proper to the regime under which it 
works, it may be actually perpetuating and stereotyp- 
ing customs which the better mind of India might be 
brought, after the necessary period of stuggle, to 
modify. A government, in which Indians themselves 
participate, invigorated by a closer touch with a more 
enlightened popular opinion, may be able with all due 
caution to effect with the free assent or acquiescence 
of the Indians themselves, what under the present 
system has to be rigorously set aside." 

Nor are the authors unmindful of the effect of free 
institutions on the character of the people as they 
themselves over and over again recognise. 

"Free institutions have, as we have said, the faculty 
of reacting on the adverse conditions in which the 
start has to be made. The backwardness of education 
may embarrass the experiment at the outset; but it 
certainly ought not to stop it, because popular govern- 
ment in India as elsewhere is sure to promote the 
progressive spread of education and so a widening 
circle of improvement will be set up." ^ 

' In this connection the pertinent observations of the Aga Khan 
in his book India in Transition may be read (Chapter XXV), Putnam, 
New York. 



THE CONDITIONS OF THE PROBLEMS 57 

Among the authors' reasons for what they call a 
gradual advance they state the following also: (a) "We 
find it freely and widely admitted that they (i.e. the 
Indians) are not yet ready." This admission may 
legitimately be used against the total withdrawal of 
all control of Indian affairs by the Parliament. Firstly, 
it is questionable whether any such admission is really 
''freely and widely" made. Secondly, the admission 
justifies the retention of the powers of vital, general 
supervision and general control and also the retention 
of some Europeans in the higher services, but not the 
total denial of all responsibility for maintaining law 
and order and of all power to control the central 
Executive, (b) That the responsibility of India's 
defence is the ultimate burden which rests on the 
Government of India; and this duty is the last 
which can be intrusted to inexperienced or unskilful 
hands. 

*'So long as India depends for her internal and 
external security upon the army and navy of the 
United Kingdom, the measure of self-determination 
which she enjoys must be inevitably limited. We 
cannot think that Parliament would consent to the 
employment of British arms in support of a policy 
over which it had no control and of which it might 
disapprove. The defence of India is an Imperial 
question: and for this reason the Government of 
India must retain both the power and the means of 
discharging its responsibilities for the defence of the 
country and to the Empire as a whole." 

The defence of India involves, (a) men for the army 
and the navy, (b) officers, (c) war materials and war 
ships, (d) experts in strategy, (e) money. That India 
pays for her defense and also contributes towards the 



58 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

defence of the Empire are facts which cannot be 
questioned. That she shall continue to do so in the 
future may also be assumed. That it is extremely 
desirable that in the matter of war supplies she should 
be self-dependent has been freely admitted. The 
permanent Indian army as constituted in pre-war days 
contained two-thirds Indians and one-third British. 
If the present strength of the Indian army be examined 
it will be found that the proportion of British troops is 
still smaller. There is absolutely no need of British 
soldiers in India for the purposes of defence, but if 
the British Government wants to keep them as safe- 
guards against mutiny among the purely Indian army 
or against the spirit of rebellion that at any time may 
exhibit itself among the Indian people, then the British 
exchequer must pay for them as it did in the case of 
British garrison in South Africa or as the United States 
does in the case of American troops in the Philippines. 
It is adding insult to injury to argue that we should 
not only pay for British troops but that the fact that 
British troops form a constituent element of the 
Indian army should be used against us for denying us 
full responsibility even in civil affairs. The armies of 
the various Asiatic Governments surrounding India 
have no European elements in them and the Indian 
soldier is as efficient a fighter as is needed as a pro- 
tection. That the Indian army should be almost 
exclusively officered by the British is a survival of 
the policy of mistrust, jealousy and racial discrimina- 
tion which has hitherto prevailed. It is time that 
the Indian army should in future be mainly officered 
by the Indians. Until that is achieved it must 
continue as a tentative measure to be officered by 



THE CONDITIONS OF THE PROBLEMS 59 

the British, and the Indian Revenues must bear the 
burden. But that is hardly any reason for denying 
us full responsible government even on the civil side. 
The Indians do not desire nor demand the transfer 
of the control over the Army or the Navy until the 
Army is principally officered by the Indians and an 
Indian Navy has been built to supplement the Imperial 
Navy. From this criticism of the reasons advanced 
by the authors for a very mild "advance" (called 
"gradual") it is with pleasure that we turn to the 
brighter side of the picture showing the favorable 
features of the situation. The position of the educated 
Indian is described fairly and squarely in Para- 
graph 140. 

"The old assumption that the interests of the ryot 
must be confided to official hands is strenuously denied 
by modern educated Indians. They claim that the 
European official must by his lack of imagination and 
comparative lack of skill in tongues be gravely handi- 
capped in interpreting the thoughts and desires of an 
Asiatic people. . . . Our educational policy in the 
past aimed at satisfying the few, who sought after 
EngUsh education, without sufficient thought of the 
consequences which might ensue from not taking care 
to extend instruction to the many. We have in fact 
created a limited intelligentsia, who desire advance; 
and we cannot stay their progress entirely until educa- 
tion has been extended to the masses. It has been 
made a reproach to the educated classes that they 
have followed too exclusively after one or two pursuits, 
the law, journalism or school teaching: and that these 
are all callings which make men inclined to overrate 
the importance of words and phrases. But even if 
there is substance in the count, we must take note also 
how far the past policy of Government is responsible. 
We have not succeeded in making education practicaL 



6o THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

It is only now, when the war has revealed the im- 
portance of industry, that we have deliberately set 
about encouraging Indians to undertake the creation 
of wealth by industrial enterprise, and have thereby 
offered the educated classes any tangible inducement 
to overcome their traditional inclination to look down 
on practical forms of energy. We must admit that 
the educated Indian is a creation peculiarly of our 
own; and if we take the credit that is due to us for 
his strong points we must admit a similar liability for 
his weak ones. Let us note also in justice to him that 
the progressive Indian appears to realise the narrow 
basis of his position and is beginning to broaden it. 
In municipal and university work he has taken a useful 
and creditable share. We find him organising effort 
not for political ends alone, but for various forms of 
public sCnd social service. He has come forward and 
done valuable work in relieving famine and distress 
by floods, in keeping order at fairs, in helping pilgrims, 
and in promoting co-operative credit. Although his 
ventures in the fields of commerce have not been 
always fortunate, he is beginning to turn his attention 
more to the improvement of agriculture and industry. 
Above all, he is active in promoting education and 
sanitation; and every increase in the number of 
educated people adds to his influence and authority." 

The authors also say: 

"We must remember, too, that the educated Indian 
has come to the front by hard work; he has seized the 
education which we offered him because he first saw 
its advantages; and it is he who has advocated and 
worked for political progress. All this stands to his 
credit. For thirty years he has developed in his 
Congress and latterly in the Muslim League free 
popular convocations which express his ideals. We 
owe him sympathy because he has conceived and pur- 
sued the idea of managing his own affairs, an aim 
which no Englishman can fail to respect. He has 



THE CONDITIONS OF THE PROBLEMS 6 1 

made a skilful, and on the whole a moderate, use of 
the opportunities which we have given him in the 
legislative councils of influencing Government and 
affecting the course of public business, and of recent 
years, he has by speeches and in the press done much 
to spread the idea of a united and self-respecting India 
among thousands who had no such conception in their 
minds. Helped by the inability of the other classes 
in India to play a prominent part he has assumed the 
place of leader; but his authority is by no means 
universally acknowledged and may in an emergency 
prove weak." 

In face of these observations about the politically 
minded classes of India it is rather unkind of the 
authors to insinuate later on that in the interests of 
the foreign merchant, the foreign missionary and the 
European servants of the state it is necessary that the 
Government of India should yet remain absolute and 
that, in the provinces as well, important branches of 
the administration should be excluded from the juris- 
diction of the popular assemblies. 

To sum up, while we are prepared to concede that 
the conditions of the problem may justify the with- 
holding of absolute autonomy, — political, fiscal, and 
military, — for some time, there is nothing in them 
which can in any way be deemed sufficient to deny 
full political, and, if not complete, at least substantial 
fiscal autonomy to the Indian people at once. 



VI 

THE PUBLIC SERVICES IN INDIA 

The governing consideration, therefore, in 
all these cases [speaking of German colo- 
nies] must be that the inhabitants should be 
placed under the control of an administration 
acceptable to themselves, one of whose main 
purposes will be to prevent their exploita- 
tion for the benefit of European capitalists or 
Governments. 

David Lloyd George 

"The War Aims of the Allies." Speech 
delivered to delegates of the Trades Unions, 
at the Central Hall, Westminster, January 5, 
1918. 

Until now the European servants of the British 
Government have ruled India quite autocratically. 
The powers delegated to and the discretion vested in 
them have been so large that they could do almost 
anything they liked. They could make or mar the 
fortunes of millions; they could further their happiness 
or add to their misery by the simple fiat of their will 
The only limitation on their power was their owk 
sense of duty and justice. That some of them did let 
themselves go is no wonder. The wonder is that the 
instances of unbridled oppression and tyrann}'^ were 
not more numerous than they have actually been. 
Speaking of the European services generally, we hav6 

62 



THE PUBLIC SERVICES IN INDIA 63 

nothing but admiration for their general character. 
The particular branch of the PubHc Services that has 
been all along entrusted with the general administration 
of the country is known as the Indian Civil Service. 
It is recruited in England and is overwhelmingly 
European in personnel. On April i, 1913, only forty- 
six of the 13 1 9 civilians on the cadre were natives of 
India. 

Speaking of the executive organizations that have so 
far ruled India, the eminent authors of the Report 
for the reorganization of the Government of India 
remark that it may ''well be likened to a mere system 
of official posts, actuated till now by impulses of its 
own, but affected by the popular ideas which impinge 
on it from three sources — the British Parliament, the 
legislative councils and the local boards." The 
sentence would have been correct if in place of ''but 
affected" the authors had said "and affected but 
little." "The system," they add, "has in the main 
depended for its effectiveness on the experience, 
wisdom and energy of the services themselves. It 
has, for the most part, been represented by the Indian 
Civil Service which, though having Httle to do with 
the technical departments of government, has for over 
100 years in practice had the administration entrusted 
to its hands, because, with the exception of the offices of 
the Governor General, Governors, and some members of 
the executive councils, it has held practically all the 
places involving superior control. It has been in effect 
much more of a government corporation than of a 
purely civil service in the English sense. It has been 
made a reproach to the Indian Civil Service that it 
regards itself as the Government; but a view which 



64 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

strikes the critic familiar with parliamentary govern- 
ment as arrogant is little more than a condensed 
truth.'* [The italics are ours.] 

The Indian Civil Service has thus developed all the 
characteristics, good and bad, of a caste. It has been 
a powerful bureaucracy, as exclusive, proud, arrogant 
and self-sufficient, — if not even more so, — as the 
original Brahmin oligarchy of the land, except that 
while the Brahmin oligarchy had ties of race, religion 
and culture with the rest of the population, the Indian 
Civil Service is almost entirely composed of aliens. 
The ancient Brahmins were, however, kept in check 
by the military caste. The mutual jealousies of these 
two castes afforded some kind of protection to the 
people in general. But in the case of the British 
Indian Civil Service, the military have given entire 
support to their civilian fellow-countrymen and have 
been completely under their will. 

The Brahmins of India have left a monumental 
record of their labors. They produced great thinkers, 
writers, legislators, administrators and organizers. 
In their own time they were as wise, energetic and 
resourceful as any bureaucracy in the world has ever 
been or will ever be. Yet the system of life they 
devised cut at the roots of national vitality. It dried 
almost all the springs of corporate national life. It 
reduced the bulk of the population to a position of 
complete subservience to their will, of blind faith in 
their wisdom, of absolute dependence on their initia- 
tive. It deprived the common people of all oppor- 
tunities of independent thought and independent 
action. It brought about a kind of national atrophy. 
And this, in spite of the fact that they began by im- 



THE PUBLIC SERVICES IN INDIA 65 

posing a rigorous code of self-denial on themselves and 
their class. For themselves they wanted nothing but 
a life of poverty and asceticism. Their economic 
interests were never in theory or in practice in conflict 
with those of the rest of the body politic. 

A Brahmin was forbidden to engage in trade or 
otherwise accumulate wealth. His life was a life of 
strict self-abnegation. This cannot be said of the 
Indian Civil Servant. He receives a handsome salary 
for his services, expects and receives periodic promotion 
until he reaches a position which, from an economic 
point of view, is not unenviable. After retirement he 
is free to engage in trade and otherwise accumulate 
wealth. But over and above this, what distinguishes 
an Indian Civil Servant from an old Brahmin bureau- 
crat is the fact that in India he represents a nation 
whose economic interest may not always be in har- 
mony with those of the people of India. He is thus 
supposed to be the guardian of the interests of his 
countrymen, and is expected to further them as much 
as he can without altogether endangering the safety 
of British rule in India. Looked at from this angle, 
we have no hesitation in saying that the work of the 
Indian Civil Service, too, has in its way, been monu- 
mental. As a rule, they have proved capable adminis- 
trators, individually honest, hardworking and alert. 
They have organized and tabulated India in a way, 
perhaps, never done before. But after all has been 
said in their praise, it cannot be denied that they have 
done India even more harm than the Brahmin oli- 
garchy in its time, did, by the support they lent to 
economic exploitation of the country by men of their 
own race and religion. Now, in this latter respect, we 



66 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

want to guard against being misunderstood. The 
Indian Civil Service has, in the course of about a 
century, produced a fairly good number of men who 
have honestly and fearlessly stood for the protection 
of Indian interests against those of people of their own 
race and religion. In doing so they have sometimes 
ruined their own prospects of promotion and advance- 
ment. Whenever they failed in their self-imposed 
task, and more often they failed than not, they failed 
because the authorities at the top were forced by 
considerations of domestic and imperial policy to do 
otherwise. On the whole, the defects of the bureau- 
cratic administration were more the defects of the 
system than of the individuals composing it. 

The Indian Civil Servant, like the old Brahmin, is 
autocratic and dictatorial. He dislikes any display of 
independence by the people put under his charge. 
He discourages initiative. He likes to be called and 
considered the Mai hap (mother and father) of his 
subjects. On those who literally consider him such 
he showers his favors. The others he denounces and 
represses. This has, in the course of time, led to 
national emasculation. That is our chief complaint 
against the Indian Civil Service. Of the other services 
we would rather not speak. They have by no means 
been so pure and high-minded as the I. C. S., nor 
perhaps so autocratic and dictatorial. The number of 
men who misused their powers and opportunities to 
their own advantage has been much larger in services 
other than the I. C. S. Yet they all have done a 
certain amount of good work for India; whether one 
looks at the engineering works designed and executed 
by them, or the researches they have made in the 



THE PUBLIC SERVICES IN INDIA 67 

science of healing and preventing disease, or the risks 
they have run in preserving order or maintaining 
peace one cannot but admire their efl&ciency and abiUty. 
The grievances of the Indian NationaHsts against the 
PubHc Services in India may be thus summarized: 

(a) That the services monopoHze too much power 
and are practically uncontrolled by and irresponsible 
to the people of the country. 

(b) That the higher branches of the services contain 
too many foreigners. 

(c) That these are recruited in England, and from 
some of them the Indians are altogether barred. 

(d) That even when doing the same work Indians 
are not paid on the same scale as the Europeans. 

(e) That the Government has often kept on men of 
proved inefi&ciency and of inferior qualities. 

(/) That, considering the economic conditions of 
India, the higher servants of the Government are paid 
on a scale unparalleled in the history of public admin- 
istration in the world. 

(g) That the interests of the services often supersede 
those of the country and the Government. 

(h) And last, but not least, that by the gathering 
of all powers of initiative and execution in their hands 
they have emasculated India. 

As regards (a) we have already quoted the opinion 
of the eminent authors of the report. The principle 
laid down in the announcement of August 20, and the 
scheme proposed are supposed to do away with the 
element of irresponsibility. It is obvious that with 
the introduction of the principle of popular control 
into the Government, the power of individual servants 
of the executive will not remain what it is now, or has 



68 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

been in the past. Much that is vested in and done by 
the service will be transferred to public bodies elected 
by popular vote. This will naturally affect (b) and 
(c) also. We will here stop to quote again from the 
Report: 

''In the forefront of the announcement of Aug- 
ust 20 the policy of the increasing association of Indians 
in every branch of the administration was definitely 
placed. It has not been necessary for us, nor indeed 
would it have been possible, to go into this large 
question in detail in the time available for our inquiry. 
We have already seen that Lord Hardinge's Govern- 
ment was anxious to increase the number of Indians 
in the public services, and that a Royal Commission 
was appointed in 191 2 to examine and report on the 
existing limitations in the employment of Indians. 
. . . The report was signed only a few months after 
the outbreak of war, and its publication was deferred 
in the hope that the war would not be prolonged. 
When written, it might have satisfied moderate Indian 
opinion, but when published two years later it was 
criticised as wholly disappointing. Our inquiry has 
since given us ample opportunity of .judging the impor- 
tance which Indian opinion attaches to this question. 
While we take account of this attitude, a factor which 
carries more weight with us is that since the report 
was signed an entirely new policy toward Indian 
government has been adopted, which must be very 
largely dependent for success on the extent to which 
it is found possible to introduce Indians into every 
branch of the administration." 

The authors of the Report then proceed to state the 
limitations of the process, subject to the general 
remark that at the present moment there are few 
Indians (we do not admit this) trained in public life, 
who can replace the Europeans, and thus to alter the 



THE PUBLIC SERVICES IN INDIA 69 

personnel of a service must be a long and steady 
process. They admit that: 

"If responsible government is to be established in 
India there will be a far greater need than is even 
dreamt of at present for persons to take part in public 
affairs in the legislative assemblies and elsewhere; 
and for this reason the more Indians we can employ 
in the public services the better. Moreover, it would 
lessen the burden of Imperial responsibilities if a body 
of capable Indian administrators could be produced. 
We regard it as necessary, therefore, that recruitment 
of a largely increased proportion of Indians should be 
begun at once." 

In the next paragraph they state why, in their 
judgment, it is necessary that a substantial portion of 
the services must continue to be European. Their 
reasons may be gathered from the following: 

*'The characteristics which we have learned to 
associate with the Indian public services must as far 
as possible be maintained and the leaven of officers 
possessed of them should be strong enough to assure 
and develop them in the service as a whole. The 
qualities of courage, leadership, decision, fixity of 
purpose, detached judgment and integrity in her public 
servants will be as necessary as ever to India. There 
must be no such sudden swamping of any service with 
any new element that its whole character suffers a 
rapid alteration." 

On these grounds they make the following recom- 
mendations: 

''I. That all distinctions based on race be removed, 
and that appointments to all branches of the public 
service be made without racial discrimination" (Para- 
graph 315). 



70 THE POLITICAL FUTIIRE OF INDIA 

"II. That for all the public services, for which there 
is recruitment in England open to Europeans and 
Indians alike, there must be a system of appointment 
in India, . . . and we propose to supplement it by 
fixing a definite percentage of recruitment to be made 
in India." 

"III. We have not been able to examine the question 
of the percentage of recruitment to be made in India 
for any service other than the Indian Civil Service. 
The Commission recommended that 25 per cent, 
of the superior posts of that service should be recruited 
for in India. We consider that changed conditions 
warrant some increase in that proportion, and we 
suggest that 33 per cent, of the superior posts should 
be recruited for in India, and that this percentage 
should be increased by ij per cent, annually until the 
periodic commission is appointed which will re-examine 
the whole subject. . . . We have dealt only with the 
Indian Civil Service, but our intention is that there 
should be in all other services now recruited from 
England a fixed percentage of recruitment in India, 
increasing annually." 

Now we must admit that this is certainly a distinct 
and marked advance on the existing situation. The 
Indian Constitutional party, however, wants to have 
the percentage of recruitment in India fixed at 50 per 
cent., retaining at the same time the annual increase 
suggested. In our opinion, this difference is not 
material, provided the number of posts to which the 
rule of percentage is to be applied is substantially 
reduced. We may state our position briefly. 

We are of the opinion that the system of administra- 
tion in India is much more costly than it should be, 
considering the sources and the amounts of Indian 
revenues. Unless the industries of the country are 
developed we can see no new sources of increased 



THE PUBLIC SERVICES IN INDIA 7 1 

taxation. Consequently, to us, it seems essential that 
some economy should be effected in the various depart- 
ments of the administration. The only way to effect 
that economy is to substantially reduce the number 
of posts on which it is considered necessary to retain 
a certain percentage of Europeans. In speaking of 
the machinery of the Government of India, the authors 
of the Report say: 

*'We think we have reason for saying that in some 
respects the machinery is no longer equal to the needs of 
the time. The normal work of the departments is 
heavy. The collective responsibility of the Govern- 
ment is weighty, especially in time of war. There is 
little time or energy left for those activities of a political 
nature which the new situation in the country 
demands. A legislative session of the Government of 
India imposes a serious strain upon the departments, 
and especially on the members in charge of them. 
But apart from the inevitable complexities of the 
moment, the growing burden of business, which results 
from the changing political conditions of the country, 
is leading to an accumulation of questions which cannot 
be disposed of as quickly as they present themselves. 
We find the necessity for reforms admitted, principles 
agreed upon, and decisions taken, and then long delays 
in giving effect to them. Difficulties are realized, 
enquiries are started, commissions report, and then 
there is a pause. There is a belief abroad that assur- 
ances given in public pronouncement of policy are 
sometimes not fulfilled. On this occasion, therefore, 
we have taken steps to guard against such imputations, 
and to provide means for ensuring the ordered develop- 
ment of our plans." 

PRESENT CAUSES OF DELAY 

"267. The main fault for the clogging of the machine 
does not, we think, lie altogether with its highly 



72 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

trained engineers. What is chiefly wanted is some 
change of system in the directions of simplicity and 
speed. How does it happen that announcements are 
made that arouse expectations only to defeat them? We 
know that it is not from any intention of deluding the 
public. We suggest that it is because the wheels 
move too slowly for the times; the need for change is 
realized, but because an examination of details would 
take too long, promises are made in general terms, 
which on examination it becomes necessary so to 
qualify with reservations as to disappoint anticipations, 
and even to lead to charges of breach of faith. We 
suspect that a root-cause of some political discontent 
lies in such delays. Now, so far as the provinces are 
concerned, we believe that our proposals for freeing 
them to a great extent from the control of the Government 
of India and the Secretary of State will improve matters. 
But the Government of India are in the worst caseJ^ 
[]The italics are ours.] 

These observations raise an apprehension in our 
mind that it is proposed to add to the strength of 
the services under the Government of India. We, for 
ourselves, do not see how it can be otherwise. With 
the steady admission of the popular element into the 
Government of India the activities of the latter are 
likely to increase rather than diminish; the secretarial 
work of the different departments will expand rather 
than contract. The question of questions is how to 
meet the increased cost. 

The remedy is the same as was suggested many 
years ago by Sir William Hunter, the official historian 
of India. He said : 

*'If we are to give a really efficient administration 
to India, many services must be paid for at lower 
rates even at present. For those rates are regulated 



THE PUBLIC SERVICES IN INDIA 73 

in the higher branches of the administration by the 
cost of officers brought from England. You cannot 
work with imported labor as cheaply as you can with 
native labor, and I regard the more extended employ- 
ment of the natives, not only as an act of justice, but 
as a financial necessity. If we are to govern the 
Indian people efficiently and cheaply, we must 
govern them by means of themselves, and pay for 
the administration at the market rates for native 
labor." 

Now, whatever may be said about the necessity of 
maintaining a strong European element in the depart- 
ments which require initiative, courage, resourcefulness 
and all the other qualities of "leadership" they are 
certainly not a sine qua non for efficiency in secretarial 
work. We can see no reason why, then, the different 
secretariats of the Government of India cannot be 
manned mainly, if not exclusively, by Indians. Their 
salaries need not be the same as those now paid to the 
Europeans engaged in these departments. May we 
ask if there is any country on earth where such high 
salaries are paid to the secretarial heads of departments 
as in India? Secretaries to the Government of India 
in the Army and Public works and Legislative depart- 
ments receive 42,000 Rs. each ($14,000, or £2800 a 
year); Secretaries to the Government of India in the 
Finance, Foreign, Home, Revenue, Agriculture, Com- 
merce and Industry and Education departments get 
Rs. 48,000 a year each ($16,000 or £3,200); Educational 
Commissioners from 30 to 36,000 Rs. ($10,000 to 
$12,000). 

These secretarial officers are not of Cabinet rank. 
Besides their salaries they get various allowances, and 



74 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

the purchasing value of the rupee in India is much 
higher than that of $s cents in the United States or of 
i6d. in the United Kingdom, the exchange equivalents 
of an Indian rupee. The same remarks may be made 
about Provincial Secretariats. We do not ignore the 
fact that a European who cuts himself away from his 
country and people for the best part of his life cannot 
be expected to give his time, energy and talents for the 
compensation he might accept in his own country, 
nor that, if the best kind of European talent is desired 
for India, the compensation must be sufficiently attrac- 
tive to tempt competent men to accept it. In Para- 
graphs 318 to 322, both inclusive, the Secretary of 
India and the Viceroy have put forward a forceful 
plea for improvement in the conditions of the European 
Services by (a) increment in their salaries, (b) expediting 
promotions, and (c) grant of additional allowances, 
and also by bettering the prospects of pensions and 
leave. We are afraid the only way to obtain the 
concurrence of Indian public opinion in this matter, 
if at all, is by restricting the number of posts which 
must be held by Europeans. The cadre of services to 
which the rule of percentage is to apply must be 
reduced in strength, and if Europeans are required 
for posts outside these they should be employed for 
short periods and from an open market. For example, 
it seems inconceivable to us why professional men like 
doctors, engineers and professors should be recruited 
for permanent service. Nor is there any reason why 
the recruitment should be confined to persons of 
British domicile. The Government of India must be 
run on business principles. With the exception, 
perhaps, of the higher posts in the I. C. S. and in the 



THE PUBLIC SERVICES IN INDIA 75 

Army, all other offices should be filled by taking the 
supply on the best available terms for short periods and 
from open market. By reducing the number of higher 
posts to which the rule of percentage should apply, 
the Government would be reducing the number of 
Indian officers who could claim the same salary as is 
given to their European colleagues. In our humble 
opinion, the latter claim is purely sentimental, and 
the best interests of the country require that the 
administration should be as economical as is compatible 
with efficiency. The strength of the different perma- 
nent services should be reduced as much as possible 
and the deficiency made up by the appointment of 
the best persons available at the price which the 
administration may be willing to pay, whether such 
persons be European, Indian or American. Take the 
Indian Educational Service, for example. The mem- 
bers start with a salary of 6000 Rs. a year ($2000 or 
£400) and rise to about 24,000 Rs. a year ($8000 or 
£1600). In the United States, to the best of our 
knowledge, few professors, if any, get a salary higher 
than $7000 or 21,000 Rs. a year. High-class graduates 
of Harvard, Yale and Columbia start their tutorial 
careers at $2000 to $3000 a year, many at $1500 a 
year. These men would refuse to go to India on a 
similar salary. On the other hand, if a salary of 
$4000 to $10,000 were offered to a select few, the 
services of the men at the top might be had for a 
short period. Surely, in the best interests of educa- 
tion, it is much better to get first-class men on high 
salaries for short periods than permanently to have 
third-class men beginning with smaller salaries and 
eventually rising to high salaries and ensuring to 



76 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

themseives life long pensions. What is true of the 
Educational Service is similarly, if not equally, true 
of the Medical, the Engineering and other scientific 
services. At the present time we have men in these 
technical services who received their education about 
twenty or twenty-five years ago and whose knowledge 
of their respective sciences is antiquated and rusty. 
Apothecaries, absolutely innocent of any knowledge 
of modern surgery, are often appointed to the post of 
Civil Surgeons. No sensible Indian desires that the 
present incumbents should be interfered with, except 
where it is possible to retire them under the terms of 
their service. All engagements should be met honor- 
ably. What is needed is that in future there should 
be a radical departure in the practice of appointing 
non-Indians to responsible posts in India. We do not 
want to deprive ourselves of the privilege of being 
guided in our work by European talent, nor should 
we grudge them adequate compensation for their 
services. What we object to is (i) racial discrimina- 
tion; (2) excessive power being vested in individual 
officers; (3) the employment of more than a necessary 
number of persons of alien origin; (4) the crippling of 
the country's resources by burdening its finances with 
unnecessary pensions and leave allowances; (5) the 
continuance of men on service lists long after their 
usefulness has disappeared; (6) the fiUing of appoint- 
ments by jobbery, as is now done in the so-called 
non-regulation provinces. We, in the Punjab, have 
been "blessed" by the rule of several generations of 
Smiths, Harrys and Jones. Those who failed to pass 
the 1. C. S. joined the cadre by the back door and 
received the same emoluments as those who entered 



THE PUBLIC SERVICES IN INDIA 77 

it by competition. It is they who block the avenues of 
promotions and not the sons of the soil. 

COST OF ADMINISTRATION 

On the subject of the cost of administration it will 
be instructive to compare the annual salaries allowed 
to the highest pubHc servants in India, the United 
States and Japan. 

The President of the United States, who ranks with 
the great royalties of the world in position, gets a 
salary of $75,000, without any other allowance. The 
Prime Minister of Japan gets 12,000 yen, or $6000. 
The Viceroy and the Governor General of India gets 
250,000 rupees, or $83,000, besides a very large amount 
in the shape of various allowances. The Cabinet 
Ministers of the United States get a salary of $12,000 
each, the Japanese 8000 yen or $4000, and the Mem- 
bers of the Viceroy's Council, $26,700 each. 

In the whole Federal Government of the United 
States there are only three ofl&ces which carry a 
salary of more than $8000. They are: 

The President of the General Navy Board . . .$13,500 

Solicitor General $10,000 

Assistant Solicitor General $9,000 

All the other salaries range from $2100 to $8000. 
In the State Department all offices, including those of 
the secretaries, carry salaries of from $2100 to $5000. 
In the Treasury Department the Treasurer gets $8000, 
three other officers having $6000 each. All the 
remaining officials get from $2500 to $5000. In the 
War Department there are only two offices which 
have a salary of $8000 attached: that of Chief of 



78 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDLA 

Staff and that of Quartermaster General. The rest 
get from $2000 to $6000. In the Navy Department, 
besides the President of the General Board mentioned 
above, the President of the Naval Examination Board 
gets $8000 and so does the Commandant of the Marine 
Corps. All the rest get from $6000 downwards. 
In the Department of Agriculture there is only one 
office carrying a salary of $6000. All the rest get 
from $5000 downwards. The Chief of the Weather 
Bureau, an expert, gets $6000. In the Commerce 
Department four experts get $6000 each, the rest 
from $5000 downwards. 

In Japan the officials of the Imperial Household 
have salaries ranging from $2750 to $4000. Officials 
of the Higher Civil Service get from $1850 to $2100 
a year; the Vice-Minister of State, $2500; Chief of 
the Legislative Bureau, $2500; the Chief Secretary of 
the Cabinet, $2500; and the Inspector General of 
the Metropolitan Police, $2500; President of the 
Administrative Litigation Court, $3000; President of 
the Railway Board, $3750; President of the Privy 
Council, $3000; Vice-President of the Privy Council, 
$2750, and so on. 

When we come to India we find that the President 
of the Railway Board gets from $20,000 to $24,000 
and that two other members of the Railway Board 
get $16,000. Secretaries in the Army, Public Works, 
and Legislative Departments get $14,000. Secretaries 
in Finance, Foreign, Home, Revenue, Agriculture, 
Commerce and Industry Departments get $16,000. 
The Secretary in the Education Department gets 
$12,000; Joint Secretary, $10,000; Controller and 
Auditor- General, $1 4,000 j Accountant-General, from 



THE PTHBLIC SERVICES IN INDIA 79 

$9,000 to $11,000; Commissioner of Salt Revenue, 
$10,000; Director of Post and Telegraph, from $12,000 
to $14,000. 

Among the officers directly under the Government 
of India there are only a few who get salaries below 
$7000. Most of the others get from that sum up to 
$12,000. 

The United States includes forty-eight States and 
territories. Some of them are as large in area, if not 
even larger, than the several provinces of India. The 
Governors of these States are paid from $2500 to 
$12,000 a year. Illinois is the only State paying 
$12,000; five States, including New York and Cali- 
fornia, pay $10,000; two, Massachusetts and Indiana, 
pay $8000; one pays $7000, and three pay $6000. 
All the rest pay $5000 or less. There is only one 
territory, the Philippines, which pays a salary of 
$20,000 to its Governor- General. 

In India the Governors of Madras, Bombay and 
Bengal each receive $40,000, besides a large amount 
for allowances. The Lieutenant-Governors of the 
Punjab, the United Provinces, Bihar and Burma get 
$33,000 each, besides allowances. The Chief Com- 
missioners receive $11,000 in Bihar, $18,700 in Assam, 
$20,700 in the Central Provinces, and $12,000 in 
Delhi. The Political Residents in the native States 
receive from $11,000 to $16,000, besides allowances. 

In Japan the governors of provinces are paid from 
$1850 to $2250 per year, besides allowances varying 
from $200 to $300. 

The Provincial services in India are paid on a more 
lavish scale than anywhere else in the world. In 
Bengal the salaries range from $1600 for Assistant 



8o THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

Magistrate and Collector to $21,333 to Members of 
the Council, and this same extravagance is also true 
of the other provinces. 

Coming to the Judiciary, we find that Justices of 
the Supreme Court of the United States get a salary of 
$14,500 each, the Chief Justice getting $15,000; the 
Circuit Judges get a salary of $7000 each; the District 
Judges, $6000. In the State of New York the Judges 
of the Supreme Court, belonging to the General Ses- 
sions, get from $17,500 and those of the Special Sessions 
from $9000 to $10,000 each. City Magistrates get 
from $7000 to $8000. In India the Chief Justice of 
Bengal gets $24,000; the Chief Justices of Bombay, 
Madras and the United Provinces, $20,000 each. 
The Chief Judges of the Chief Court of the Punjab and 
Burma get $16,000 each and the Puisine Judges of 
the High Courts the same amounts. 

The Puisine Judges of the Chief Courts receive 
$14,000. In the Province of Bengal the salaries of 
the District and Session Judges range from $8,000 to 
$12,000. District Judges of the other provinces get 
from about $7000 to $12,000. The Deputy Com- 
missioners in India get a salary in the different provinces 
ranging from $6000 to $9000 a year. The Com- 
missioners get from $10,000 to $12,000. 

In Japan the Appeal Court Judges and Procurators 
get from $900 to $2500 a year. Only one officer, the 
President of the Court of Causation, gets as much as 
$3000. The District Court Judges and Procurators 
are paid at the rate of from $375 to $1850. It is 
needless to compare the salaries of minor officials in 
the three countries. Since the Indian taxpayer has 
to pay so heavily for the European services engaged in 



THE PUBLIC SERVICES IN INDIA 8l 

the work of administration, it is necessary that even 
Indian officers should be paid on a comparatively high 
scale, thus raising the cost of administration hugely 
and affecting most injuriously the condition of the men 
in the lower grades of the government service. The 
difference between the salaries of the officers and the 
men forming the rank and file of the government 
in the three countries shows clearly how the lowest 
ranks in India suffer from the fact that the highest 
governmental officials are paid at such high rates. 

In New York City the Chief Inspector gets $3500 
a year; Captains, $2750; Lieutenants, $2250; Sur- 
geons, $1,750; and Patrolmen, $1,400 each. In Japan 
the Inspector General of the Metropolitan Police gets 
$2500. The figures of the lower officials are not 
available. But the minimum salary of a Constable 
is $6.50 a month, besides which he gets his equipment, 
uniform and boots free. In India the Inspectors 
General get from $8000 to $12,000, the Deputy 
Inspectors General from $6000 to $7200, District 
Superintendents of PoHce from $2666 to $4800, 
Assistants from $1200 to $2000, Inspectors from 
$600 to $1000, Sub-inspectors from $200 to $400, 
Head Constables from $60 to $80, Constables from 
$40 to $48. 

We have taken these figures from the Indian Year 
Book, pubHshed by the Times of India, Bombay. 
We know as a fact that the PoHce-Constables in the 
Punjab are paid from $2.67 to $3.33 per month — that 
is, from $32 to $40 per year. The reader should mark 
the difference between the grades of salaries from the 
highest to the lowest in India as compared with the 
United States and Japan. While in India the lowest 



82 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

officials are frightfully underpaid, the highest grades 
are paid on a lavish scale. In the other countries of 
the world this is not the case. 

EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT 

In the United States (we quote the figures of New 
York) the lowest grade school teachers get a salary of 
$720, rising to $1500 a year. In the upper grades 
salaries range from $1820 to $2260. Principals of 
elementary schools receive $3500 and assistants 
$2500. In the High Schools salaries range from $900 
to $3150, in training schools from $1000 to $3250. 
Principals of High Schools and Training Schools 
receive $5000 and the same salary is paid to the 
District Superintendent. The Commissioner of Educa- 
tion in New York gets $7500. 

In Japan the Minister of Education, who is a Cabinet 
Minister, gets $4000, and the lowest salaries paid to 
teachers range from $8 to $9 per month. In the 
United States College Professors make from $3000 to 
$5000 per year, a few only getting higher sums. In 
Japan salaries range from $300 to $2000. Coming 
to India we find that while the Administrative 
officials and even the College Professors get fairly 
high salaries, the teachers in the schools are miserably 
underpaid. 

Even the Times of India, an Anglo-Indian newspaper 
published in Bombay, has recently commented on 
the colossal difference between the salaries allowed 
at the top and those allowed at the bottom. Yet 
recently the Secretary of State has been sanctioning 
higher leave allowances to the European officers of 
the Indian Army, 



THE PUBLIC SERVICES IN INDIA S;^ 

The Secretary of State for India in Council has 
approved, with effect from January i, 191 9, the follow- 
ing revised rates of leave pay for officers of the Indian 
Army and Indian Medical service granted leave out 
of India: 

Indian Army 

per annum 

On appointment £200 

3 years' service 250 

300 

350 

400 

450 

500 

550 

600 

650 

700 



After completion of 








































6 




9 




12 ' 




IS 




18 




21 ' 




24 




27 




29 





Indian Medical Service. 

On appointment 300 

After completion of 3 years' service 350 



if 

9> 



6 

9 
12 

IS 

18 

21 
24 



400 

450 
500 

550 
600 

650 

700 



VII 

THE INDIAN ARMY AND NAVY 

The real enemy is the war spirit fostered 
in Prussia. It is an ideal of a world in which 
force and brutality reign supreme, as against 
a world, an ideal of a world, peopled by free 
democracies, united in an honourable league 
of peace. 

David Lloyd George 

"The Destruction of a False Ideal." 
Speech delivered at the Albert Hall on the 
launching of the New War Economy 
Campaign, October 22, 1917. 

When the Indian troops first arrived in 
October, 1914, the situation was of so drastic 
a nature that it was necessary to call upon 
them at once to re-enforce the fighting front 
and help to stem the great German thrust. 
Their fine fighting qualities, tenacity, and 
endurance were well manifested during the 
first Battle of Ypres before they had been 
able to completely reorganize after their 
voyage from India. 

Lord French, the First Commander- 
in-Chief of British forces on the 
Western front. 

The full story of the Palestine victory still 
remained to be told, but when the record 
of that glorious campaign was unfolded, 

ACROSS the page OF HISTORY WOULD BE WRIT 
LARGE THE NAME OF INDIA, 
84 



THE INDIAN ARMY AND NAVY 85 

Lord Chelmsford, the Governor- 
General of India, on September 26, 
1918. 

As is usual in our history, we have 
triumphed after many sad blunders and in 
the end we have defeated Turkey almost 
single-handed, though our main forces have 
throughout the war been engaged with another 
foe. In fact, it is to india that our 
recent victory is due. . . . 

Major General Sir Frederick 
Maurice in The New York TimeSy 
November 6, 19 18. 

The present Governor of the Punjab (his precise 
designation is Lieutenant Governor), who is the most 
reactionary, self-complacent and conceited of all the 
provincial rulers of India, has in the course of his 
appeals for recruits for the present war said more 
than once that the right of self-government carries 
with it the responsibility of defending the country. 
The distinguished authors of the Report have also 
remarked in one place that so long as the duty of 
defending India rests on Great Britain, the British 
Parliament must control the Government of India. 
Now let us see what the facts are. 

(i) The first thing to be remembered in this con- 
nection is that during the whole period of British rule 
in India, not a penny has been spent by Great Britain 
for Indian defence. The defence of India has been 
well provided for by Indian Revenues. On the other 
hand India has paid millions in helping Great Britain 
not only in defending the Empire, but in extendingj 



86 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

it.^ Whatever protection has been afforded to India 
by the British Navy — and that has by no means 
been small — has been more than repaid by India's 
services to the Empire in China, Egypt, South Africa 
and other parts of the world. As to the miHtary forces 
of India, they consist of two wings : {a) the British and 
(b) the Indian. The pre-war Indian army consisted 
of 80,000 British and 160,000 Indians. Indian public 
opinion has for decades been protesting against the 
denial to Indians of officers' commissions in the Indian 
army, as also against the strength of the British element 
therein. Every British unit of the Indian army from 
the Field Marshal to the Tommy is paid for his services 
by India. India pays for these services not only during 
the time they form part of the Indian army but also 
for their training and equipment. It pays all their 
leave, transfer and pension charges. It even pays for 
whatever provision is made in England for their 
medical relief, etc. In the line of the military and 
naval defence of India, Great Britain has not done as 
much for India as she has done for the dominions and 
self-governing colonies. Under the circumstances it 
is adding insult to injury to insinuate that India has 
in any way shirked the duty of providing for her 
defence. We will say nothing of India's services during 
the war. 

In the military defence of India, the contribution of 
the Punjab has always been the greatest. If the 
British provinces are considered singly, it will be 
found that the Punjab has been supplying the largest 
number of units for the Indian army, not only in the 

^#See chapter on "How India has helped England make her Em- 
pire," in England's Debt to India, by the present author. 



THE INDIAN ARMY AND NAVY 87 

ranks of the fighters, but also in the ranks of auxiliaries. 
During this war, too, the Punjab made the largest 
contribution of both combatants and non-combatants. 
Yet, if we compare the civil status of the people of the 
Punjab with that of other provinces, we will find that 
they have been persistently denied equaUty of status 
with Bengal, Bombay and Madras. The Punjab 
peasantry, which supplies the largest number of soldiers 
to the army, is the most illiterate and ignorant of all 
the classes of Indian population. Their economic and 
legal position may better be studied in Mr. Thorborn's 
The Punjab in Peace and in War. The Municipal and 
Local Boards of the province do not possess as much 
independence as has been conceded in the other 
provinces. The judicial administration of the province 
is as antiquated as it could possibly be under British 
rule. Instead of a High Court we have still a Chief 
court.2 Captains and Majors and Colonels are still 
performing judicial functions as magistrates and judges. 
The trial by jury in the cases of Indians is unknown. 
Until lately the Punjab was stamped with the badge of 
inferioity by being called a non-Regulation province. 
Even in this report the Secretary of State for India 
and the Viceroy have spoken of it as a backward 
province. It will thus be seen that the contribution 
of the Punjab to the mihtary strength of the Empire 
has in no way benefited her population in getting 
better opportunities for civil progress or greater civil 
liberties. But recently the President of the Punjab 
Provincial Conference uttered hard words against the 
Provincial administration's pohcy of repression and 
coercion. He said that their ''cup of disappointment, 

* It has now been converted into a High Court. 



88 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OE INDIA 

discontent and misery, in the Punjab, at any rate, was 
full to overflowing." 

So much about the discharge of obligations for 
military defence carrying with it the right of self- 
government. The Indians have no desire to shirk 
their responsibility for the military defence of India; 
nor do they want to balk their contribution to the 
Imperial defence. Their demands in this respect may 
be thus summarised: 

(i) That the Indian Army should be mainly officered 
by the Indians. 

(2) That as much as is possible of the arms and 

ammunition equipment, and the military 
stores required for the Indian army be pro- 
duced in India. 

(3) That the strength of the British element be 

considerably reduced. 

(4) That the nature of the Indian army, which is at 

present one of hired soldiers, be converted into 
that of a National Militia with a smaU stand- 
ing army and a great reserve. 

(5) That in order to do it, some kind of compulsory 

military training be introduced. All young 
men between the ages of 17 and 21 may be 
required to undergo military training and put 
in at least one year of military service. 

(6) That as a preliminary step towards it the 

existing Arms Act be repealed and, under 
proper safeguards, the people be allowed to 
carry and possess arms in peace and war, so 
as to be familiar with their use. 

(7) That slowly and gradually, as funds can be 



THE INDIAN ARMY AND NAVY 89 

spared from the other demands more urgent 
and pressing, an Indian Navy be built. 

Having explained the position of the Indian Nation- 
alist in this matter, we will now see what Mr. Montagu 
and Lord Chelmsford say on this matter in their report. 
In Paragraph 328 they state the "Indian wishes" and 
point out that ''for some years Indian poHticians have 
been urging the right of Indians in general to bear 
arms in defence of their country"; and that "we have 
everywhere met a general demand from the political 
leaders for extended opportunities for military service," 
but that the subject being more or less outside the 
scope of their enquiry and ''requirements of the 
future" being dependent "on the form of peace which 
is attained," they "leave this question for consideration 
hereafter with the note that it must be faced and 
settled." 

In Paragraph 330 they deal with the question of 
"British Commissions for Indians." 

"The announcement of his Majesty's Government 
that 'the bar which has hitherto prevented the admis- 
sion of Indians to commissioned rank in His Majesty's 
Army should be removed' has established the principle 
that the Indian soldier can earn the King's commission 
by his military conduct. It is not enough merely to 
assert a principle. We must act on it. The services 
of the Indian army in the war and the great increase 
in its numbers make it necessary that a considerable 
number of commissions should now be given. The 
appointments made so far have been few. Other 
methods of appointment have not yet been decided on, 
but we are impressed with the necessity of grappling 
with the problem. We also wish to establish the 
principle that if an Indian is enlisted as a private in a 



90 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

British unit of His Majesty's Army its commissioned 
ranks also should be open to him." 

The "other methods of appointment" that have 
been announced since the report was signed are far 
from satisfactory. It has been said that the responsi- 
biUty for this niggardly policy in the matter of admitting 
Indians to the Commissioned ranks of the army rests 
with the Home Government and that the Indian 
Government's recommendations were much more 
liberal. Now, as practical men, we fully realize that 
for some time to come, at least until British suspicion 
of India's desire to get out of the Empire is completely 
removed by the grant of responsible government to 
India, India's military policy and the Indian army 
must be controlled by the British executive. On that 
point all the parties in India are agreed. But it is 
absolutely necessary that some steps be at once taken 
to remove the stigma of military helplessness from 
India's forehead. Let the British retain the control 
and the command, but let us share the responsibility 
to some extent and let our young men be trained for 
the future defence of their Motherland. To deprive 
them of all means of doing that, to charge them with 
neglect of that paramount duty and then to urge it 
as a disqualification of civil liberties, is hardly fair. 



VIII 

THE EUROPEAN COMUNITY IN INDIA 

The old world, at least, believed in 
ideals. It believed that justice, fair play, 
liberty, righteousness must triumph in the 
end; that is, however you interpret the 
phrase, the old world believed in God, 
and it staked its existence on that belief. 
Millions of gallant young men volunteered 
to die for that divine faith. But if wrong 
emerged triumphant out of this conflict, 
the new world would feel in its soul that 
brute force alone counted in the govern- 
ment of man; and the hopelessness of the 
dark ages would once more fall on the earth 
like a cloud. 

David Lloyd George 

"No Halfway House." Speech delivered 
at Gray's Inn, December 14, 191 7. 

A WHOLE section of the Report has been devoted 
to a consideration of the claims of the European Com- 
munity in India. It is said: 

''We cannot conclude without taking into due 
account the presence of a considerable community of 
non-official Europeans in India. In the main they are 
engaged in commercial enterprises; but besides these 
are the missions, European and American, which in 
furthering education, building up character, and in- 

91 



92 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

culcating healthier domestic habits have done work 
for which India should be grateful. There are also an 
appreciable number of retired oflficers and others whose 
working life has been given to India, settled in the 
cooler parts of the country. When complaints are 
rife that European commercial interests are selfish 
and drain the country of wealth which it ought to 
retain, it is well to remind ourselves how much of Indians 
material prosperity is due to European commerce J^ 
[The italics are ours]. 

We have no desire to raise a controversy over the 
assumption which underlies the last statement in the 
above extract. The authors are themselves cognizant 
of it when they remark, later on, that the ''benefit'' 
which India has received by her commercial develop- 
ment in European hands is "not less because it was 
incidental and not the purpose of the undertaking." 
These are matters on which the Indian Nationalist 
may well hold his own opinion and yet endorse the 
spirit of the following observations: 

*' Clearly it is the duty of British Commerce in India 
to identify itself with the interests of India, which are 
higher than the interests of any community; to take 
part in political life; to use its considerable wealth 
and opportunities to commend itself to India; and 
having demonstrated both its value and its good 
intentions, to be content to rest like other industries 
on the new foundation of Government in the wishes of 
the people. No less is it the wish of Indian politicians 
to respect the expectations which have been implicitly 
held out; to remember how India has profited by 
commercial development which only British capital 
and enterprise achieved; to bethink themselves that 
though the capital invested in private enterprises was 
not borrowed under any assurance that the existing 
form of government would endure, yet the favourable 



THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY IN INDIA 93 

terms on which money was obtained for India's develop- 
ment were undoubtedly affected by the fact of British 
rule; and to abstain from advocating differential 
treatment aimed not so much at promoting Indian as 
at injuring British commerce." 

We must say that the last insinuation is perfectly 
gratuitous. Nor is it correct to say even by implica- 
tion that the non-oflScial European community has 
hitherto abstained from taking part in politics. The 
fact is that Indian politics have hitherto been too 
greatly dominated by the British merchant both at 
home and in India. The British merchant doing 
business in India had to submit to the prior claims of 
the British manufacturers in Great Britain in matters 
in which their interests did not coincide, but otherwise 
their interests received the greatest possible attention 
from the Government of India. In proportion to their 
incomes derived from India by the employment of 
Indian labour on terms more or less guaranteed to 
them by the Indian Government's special legislation 
they have made the smallest possible contribution to 
the Indian Revenues; yet they have been the greatest 
possible hindrance in the development of Indian 
liberties. They have all the time owned a powerful 
press which has employed all the resources of education 
and enhghtenment, all the powers of manipulating 
facts and figures in maintaining and strengthening 
the rule of autocracy in the country. We do not 
propose to open these wounds. But we cannot help 
remarking that so far they have exercised quite a 
disproportionate influence in the decisions of the 
Government of India. Those of them who are domi- 
ciled in the country are our brothers and no Indian 



94 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

has the least desire to do anything that will harm 
them in any way. Their importance must, in future, 
be determined not by their race or colour or creed but 
by their numbers, their education and their position 
in the economic life of the country. They must no 
longer lord it over the Indians simply because they 
are of European descent. They should claim no 
preferences or exemptions because of that fact. As 
an integral part of the Indian body politic they are 
entitled to all the consideration which they deserve 
by virtue of their intellectual or economic position. 
They should henceforth be Indo-British both in spirit 
and in name. They will find the Indians quite ready 
to forget the past and embrace them as brothers for 
the common prosperity of their joint country. 

As regards the other European merchants who are 
not domiciled in India but are there just to make 
money and return to spend it in their native land, 
they are no more entitled to any place in the political 
machinery of the Indian Government than the Hindus 
who trade in the United States or in England. So 
far every European, of whatever nationality he might 
be, has occupied a position of privilege in India. He 
was granted rights which were denied to the sons of 
the soil. Every German or Austrian or Bulgarian 
could keep or carry any number and kind of arms he 
wanted without any license, while the natives of 
India, even of the highest position, could not do so 
unless exempted either by virtue of their rank or by 
the favour of the Administration. Jews and Ar- 
menians, Turks and Russians, Scandinavians, Danes, 
Italians and Swiss all enjoyed the privilege. When 
charged with any serious offence punishable by im- 



THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY IN INDIA 95 

prisonment for more than six months, they could claim 
trial by a jury having a majority of Europeans on it, 
while no Indian outside the Presidency towns of Bom- 
bay, Calcutta and Madras had that right. Even there, 
the jury trying an Indian could include a majority 
of Europeans. In the famous trial of Mr. B. G. 
Tilak in 1908, the jury was composed of seven Euro- 
peans and two Parsees. It is obvious that these 
discriminations in favour of the Europeans must cease 
and that no European not domiciled in India should 
enjoy a position of special privilege. Indians are 
noted for their hospitality and chivalry. Their own 
codes of honor effectively prevent them from doing 
any harm or injury to a foreigner. Every European 
doing business in India or on any other errand is a 
guest of honor and entitled to that treatment, pro- 
vided he does not assume racial superiority and look 
down upon the people of the country and take ad- 
vantage of their being subjects of a European power. 
No Indian will be so foolish as to injure the com- 
mercial development of his country by scaring the 
foreign trader or the foreign capitalist. All that 
he wants is freedom to lay down the terms on which 
that trade will be carried on consistently with the 
interests of India's millions. What he stands for is 
equality and reciprocity. As other peoples are free 
to name the conditions on which the foreign trader 
may do business in their countries, so must the Indians 
be. Nothing more and nothing less than this is de- 
manded. 

As regards the citizens of the British Empire also, 
the same right of reciprocity is demanded. We are 
glad that the representatives of the Dominions have 



96 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

recognized the justice of that claim and expressed 
their willingness to concede it. 

Coming to the Missions, European and American, 
the advice given is rather gratuitous. The Indians 
have left nothing undone to show their gratitude to 
them for the good work done by them in spite of the 
fact that they, too, in the past, have not hesitated to 
use the fact of their race and colour for the benefit 
of their propaganda. The person of a religious man is 
sacred in the eyes of an Indian, regardless of his par- 
ticular creed. The Christian missionary has so far 
enjoyed a unique position of safety and freedom in 
the country even to a greater extent than the Hindu 
or the Moslem priest. The latter have often quarrelled 
amongst themselves, but the former they have always 
respected and honored. There is absolutely no reason 
to think that this is likely to change in any way by the 
grant of political liberty to the Indians. 

It is possible, however, that, with the growth of free 
thought in India, religious teachers of all denominations 
may not continue to be the recipients of the same 
honour as has been paid to them in the past by virtue 
of their religious office. Dogmatic religion, whether it 
be Hinduism, Mohammedanism or Christianity is in a 
state of decay. In that respect India is feeling the 
reaction of world forces and no amount of political 
coercion or repression can stop it. In my humble 
judgment the average Indian has thus far been more 
tolerant of and more considerate to the Christian 
missionary than the latter has been to the Indian. 
Even in the matter of gratitude the Christian mis- 
sionary may with advantage learn from the Hindu. 
The instances are not rare in which all the hospitality, 



THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY IN INDIA 97 

respect and honor which a Christian missionary has 
received during his stay in India have been repaid by 
the latter's freely traducing the character of the 
Indians in his home land. To no small degree is 
the Christian missionary responsible for the feeling of 
contempt with which the Indian is looked down upon 
in America and other countries of the West. We do 
not object to his speaking the truth, but it is not the 
truth that he always speaks. Of gratitude, at least, 
he gives no evidence. 

The European Community in India is divided into two classes: 
(a) pure Europeans, who number a little less than 200,000 in the 
total population of 315,000,000. (178,908 in the British provinces 
and 20,868 in the native States.) 

(b) Anglo-Indians, hitherto called Eurasians, who number about 
83,000 (68,612 in British territories and 15,045 in the Native States). 
Thus the whole European community in India is less than 300,000. 



IX 
THE NATIVE STATES 

The Native States of India constitute one of the 
anomalies of Indian political life. They are the honored 
remnants of the old order of things — an order in which 
personal bravery, resourcefulness and leadership with 
or without capacity for successful intrigue enabled 
individuals to carve out kingdoms and principalities 
for themselves and their legal successors. 

In the case of some of these Native States the 
genealogies of the ruling houses go back to the early 
centuries of the Christian era by historical evidence 
and to pre-Christian times by tradition. Their origin 
is somewhat shrouded in mystery. In popular belief 
they are the descendants of gods — gods of light and 
life, the Sun and the Moon. Next to the Royal 
family of Japan, they are perhaps the only houses 
among the rulers of the earth which can claim such an 
ancient and unbroken lineage of royalty with sover- 
eignty of one kind or another always vested in them. 
There have been times in their history when the 
royal heads of these states had no house to live in and 
no bed to sleep on, much less a territory to rule and an 
army to command. This was, however, a part of 
their royalty. In struggles against powerful enemies, 
sometimes of their own race and religion, but more 
often foreign aggressors of different blood and creed, 

98 



THE NATIVE STATES 99 

they were many a time worsted and driven to extreme 
straits of poverty and helplessness. In peace or in 
war, in prosperity or in misery, they never gave up the 
struggle. Their right to lead their people and to rule 
their country they never yielded for a moment. It is 
true that sometimes they submitted to the superior 
power of the enemy and accepted a position of sub- 
ordination, though in one case, at least, even this was 
done only for a short time under the Moguls. In the 
darker days of Indian history, when the military 
devastation of foreign invaders left nothing but tears 
and blood, ruin and ashes, defeat and misery in their 
track, these houses kept the lamp of hope burning. 
For full ten centuries they carried on a struggle of life 
and death, sometimes momentarily succumbing before 
the overwhelming force of their adversaries, but only 
to rise again in fresh vigor and life to reclaim their 
heritage and preserve their own and their country's 
independence. 

The Sessodias of Mewar called the Ranas of Mewar 
(Udaipur) and the Rahtores of Marwar (including 
Jodhpur, Bikaner, Rutlam, Kishangarh and Alwar) 
have written many a glorious page of Mediaeval Indian 
history and dyed it with their own blood as well as 
that of their adversaries. Not only their men but 
their women have made themselves immortal by their 
bravery, chivalry, purity and self-immolation. The 
one thing which distinguishes the Indian Rajput from 
the peoples of other lands is that he has never waged 
war against the poor, the helpless and the defenceless. 
Numberless men gave their lives freely and ungrudgingly 
not only in protecting the lives of their own women 
and children but also in doing the same service to the 



lOO THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

women and children of their enemies. The Rajput 
never fought an unfair fight. He never took advantage 
of the helplessness of his enemy and always gave him 
right of way and the use of his best weapons for a free 
and fair fight in the open. Anyone desirous of knowing 
their deeds may read them in that poem in prose, 
known as the Annals of Rajhasthan by Col. Todd. 
Col. Todd has drawn a most faithful and thrilHng 
picture of Rajput bravery and Rajput chivalry in a 
language worthy of the best traditions of English 
literature. Here and there in matters of minor details 
his authority has been questioned; otherwise the 
results of his monumental labors still remain the best 
picture of Rajput India. The Rajput States of India 
are thus the objects of reverent honor to the 220 
million Hindus of that country. Next to the Rajput 
States comes the native ruling family of Mysore as 
the representative of a very ancient Hindu Kingdom. 
The Mahratta States are the remnants of the Mahratta 
Empire and the Sikhs those of the Sikh Commonwealth. 
The biggest of all the Indian Native States, Hyderabad, 
arose out of the ruins of the Mogul Empire and is 
supposed to be the most powerful guardian of Moslem 
culture and tradition. From this description the 
reader will at once see why the Native States are so 
dear to the peoples of India and why the Indian edu- 
cated party has always stood by the Native States, 
whenever either their treaty rights or the personal 
dignity and status of their chiefs was threatened by 
the British authorities. Lord Dalhousie's policy of 
annexation by lapse was so much resented by the 
people of India that it had almost cost the British 
their Indian Empire. Only in the Native States do 



THE NATIVE STATES , lOI 

the Indians see remaining traces of their former inde- 
pendence. That fact alone covers all the defects of 
native rule or misrule in the States, in their eyes. 
Some of these Native States have been so well admin- 
istered that in education, social reform and industrial 
advancement they are far ahead of the neighboring 
British territories. But their chief merit lies in the 
fact that ordinarily the people get enough food to eat 
and are seemingly happier than British subjects. 
This fact has been noticed by several competent 
observers of contemporary Indian life, among them 
the Right Honorable Mr. Fisher, President of the 
Board of Education in England. In his book The 
Empire and the Future he has observed: 

"My impression is that the inhabitants of a well 
governed native state are on the whole happier and more 
contented than the inhabitants of British India. They 
are more lightly taxed; the pace of the administration is 
less urgent and exacting; their sentiment is gratified by 
the splendor of a native court and by the dominion of 
an Indian government. They feel that they do things 
for themselves instead of having everything done for 
them by a cold and alien benevolence." (Italics 
are ours) 

But after all that is favourable to the Native States 
of India has been said, their existence in their present 
form remains a political anomaly. As at present 
situated, they are an effective hindrance to complete 
Indian unity. Although ''India is in fact as well as 
by legal definition, one geographical whole," yet these 
Native States, occupying about one-third of the total 
area of the country and with a population of about 
70 million will, for a long time, prevent its becoming 



I02 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

a homogeneous political whole. Thus a circumstance 
which was hitherto looked upon as a piece of good 
luck will operate as a misfortune. 

''The Native States of India are about 700 in number. 
They embrace the widest variety of country and 
jurisdiction. They vary in size from petty States like 
Rewa, in Rajputana, with an area of 19 square miles, 
and the Simla Hill States, which are little more than 
small holdings, to States like Hyderabad, as large as 
Italy, with a population of thirteen milUons." ^ 

The general position as regards the rights and 
obligations of the Native States has been thus summed 
up by the distinguished authors of the joint Report 
(Lord Chelmsford and Mr. Montagu): 

"The States are guaranteed security from without; 
the paramount power acts for them in relation to 
foreign powers and other States, and it intervenes 
when the internal peace of their territories is seriously 
threatened. On the other hand the States' relations 
to foreign powers are those of the paramount power; 
they share the obligation for the common defence; 
and they are under a general responsibility for the 
good government and welfare of their territories." 

As regards the assimilation of the principles of 
modern life, it is remarked in the same document: 

"Many of them have adopted our civil and criminal 
codes. Some have imitated and even further extended 
our educational system. . . . They have not all been 
equally able to assimilate new principles. They are 
in all stages of development, patriarchal, feudal or 
more advanced, while in a few states are found the 
beginnings of representative institutions. The char- 
acteristic features of all of them, however, including 

1 The Indian Year Book for 1918, p. 81. 



THE NATIVE STATES I03 

the most advanced, are the personal rule of the Prince 
and his control over legislation and the administration 
of justice." 

Under the circumstances the question of questions 
is how these territories are going to fall into line with 
the British controlled area in the matter of the develop- 
ment of responsible Government. We will once more 
quote the opinion of the Secretary of State for India 
and the Viceroy, who say: 

"We know that the States cannot be unaffected by 
constitutional development in adjoining provinces. 
Some of the more enlightened and thoughtful of the 
Princes, among whom are included some of the best 
known names, have realised this truth, and have them- 
selves raised the question of their own share in any 
scheme of reform. Others of the Princes — again 
including some of the most honored names — desire 
only to leave matters as they are. We feel the need 
for caution in this matter. It would be a strange 
reward for loyalty and devotion to force new ideas 
upon those who did not desire them; but it would be 
no less strange, if out of consideration for those who 
perhaps represent gradually vanishing ideas, we were 
to refuse to consider the suggestions of others who 
have been no less loyal and devoted. Looking ahead 
to the future we can picture India to ourselves only 
as presenting the external semblance to some form of 
'federation.' The provinces will ultimately become 
self-governing units, held together by the central 
Government which will deal solely with matters of 
common concern to all of them. But the matters 
common to the British provinces are also to a great 
extent those in which the Native States are interested 
— defence, tariffs, exchange, opium, salt, railways 
and posts and telegraphs. The gradual concentration 
of the Government of India upon such matters will 
therefore make it easier for the States, while retaining 



104 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

the autonomy which they cherish in internal matters, 
to enter into closer association with the central Govern- 
ment if they wish to do so. But though we have 
no hesitation in forecasting such a development as 
possible, the last thing that we desire is to attempt to 
force the pace. Influences are at work which need no 
artificial stimulation. All that we need or can do is 
to open the door to the natural developments of the 
future." 

In Paragraphs 302 to 305 the authors of the Report 
state the process by which this development may be 
expedited. Disavowing any intention of forcibly 
altering treaty rights, they propose to classify the 
States into (a) those that have "full authority over 
their internal affairs^" (b) those "in which Government 
exercises through its Agents large powers of internal 
control," (c) those who are really no more "than mere 
owners of a few acres of land." It is further pointed 
out that hitherto the 

*' general clause which occurs in many of the treaties 
to the eSect that the Chief shall remain absolute Ruler 
of his country has not in the past precluded and does 
not even now preclude 'interference with the admin- 
istration by Government through the agency of its 
representatives at the Native Courts.' We need hardly 
say that such interference has not been employed in 
wanton disregard of treaty obligations. During the 
earlier days of our intimate relations with the States 
British agents found themselves compelled, often 
against their will, to assume responsibility for the 
welfare of the people, to restore order out of chaos, 
to prevent inhuman practices, and to guide the hands 
of a weak or incompetent Ruler as the only alternative 
to the termination of his rule. So too, at the present 
day, the Government of India acknowledges as trustee, 
a responsibility (which the Princes themselves desire 



THE NATIVE STATES I05 

to maintain) for the proper administration of States 
during a minority, and also an obligation for the 
prevention or correction of flagrant misgovernment." 

And also that: 

*'the position hitherto taken up by Government has 
been that the conditions under which some of the 
treaties were executed have undergone material changes, 
and the literal fulfilment of particular obligations which 
they impose has become impracticable. Practice has 
been based on the theory that treaties must be read as 
a whole, and that they must be interpreted in the light 
of the relation established between the parties not 
only at the time when a particular treaty was made, 
but subsequently." 

On these grounds it is proposed to establish a Council 
of Princes to which questions which affect the States 
generally or are of concern to the Empire as a whole, 
or to British India and the States in common, may be 
referred for advice and opinion. So long as the Princes 
do not intervene either formally or informally in the 
internal affairs of British India, we have no objection 
to the scheme. On the other hand, we do hope some 
method will be found by which, with the consent 
of the parties interested the smaller principalities 
scattered all over the country may, for administrative 
purposes, be merged either in the British area or in 
the bigger Native States which possess full power of 
autonomy over their internal affairs. In the long run 
it will be comparatively easy to convert the latter to 
an acceptance of the modern principles of government 
if the number of Native States is reduced and their 
people achieve that soHdarity which comes by com- 
munity of interests and ideas. In this connection 
it is a happy augury for the future that some of the 



Io6 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

highest Chiefs like those of Mysore, Baroda, Gwaliar, 
Indore, Kashmir, Bikaner, Jodhpore, Alwar, and 
Patiala are alive to the importance of marching with 
the times. The people of British India owe them a 
great debt of gratitude for the moral support they 
have given to their claim for responsible Government 
by coming out openly and freely in favour of the 
proposed advance. We are sure that these Princes 
will in due time take measures to bring their own 
territories in line with the British provinces and thus 
strengthen the ties that bind them to their own peoples 
as well as to the other people of India. After all, 
there can be no manner of doubt, as the authors of 
the report predict, 

*'that the processes at work in British India cannot 
leave the States untouched and must in time affect 
even those whose ideas and institutions are of the 
most conservative and feudal character." 

It is the path of wisdom and sagacity to recognise 
the world forces that are at work. No amount of 
ancient prestige can prevent the people from coming 
into their own. The age of despotism is gone and the 
autocrats of today must sooner or later hand over 
their powers to the people. The more they conciliate 
them the longer perhaps they may be able to lead 
them. They may continue as leaders for a long time, 
but as autocratic dispensers of favours and fortunes 
they cannot remain, perhaps not even for their life 
time. 

In our judgment this part of the Montagu- Chelmsford 
Report is no less important for the future of Indian 
democracy than the others that directly deal with 



THE NATIVE STATES IO7 

British India, and we hope that whatever might be 
the policy as regards the existing States the new law 
will make it impossible for the Government of India 
and the Secretary of State to create any new States in 
the future. It is monstrous to transfer milHons of 
human beings from one kind of political rule to another 
like so many cattle, as was done in 191 1. The present 
rule of any Indian Maharaja may be as good or as bad 
as that of a British Governor or Lieutenant Governor, 
but the latter has in it greater democratic potentialities 
than the former, for the mere fact, if for no other, that, 
while the British are more or less amenable to world 
opinion, the rulers of Native States are not. It is 
inhuman, and not in accord with modern ideas of 
right and wrong to reward somebody's loyalty by 
giving him power of life and death over numerous 
fellow beings, otherwise than in due course of law. 
Even the mighty British Government is not the owner 
of the bodies and souls of its subjects in India. How, 
then, can it assume the right of abandoning them to 
the absolute rule of a single individual, however 
worthy or loyal he may be? We hope this stupid way 
of rewarding loyal services may be ended by an express 
provision to that effect in the statute which will be 
passed relating to the reorganization of the Government 
of India. 

In this connection the following observations made 
in a leading editorial of the Servant of India, Poona 
(February 16, 1919), are worthy of attention: 

"A hundred years ago, it was decidedly in the 
interests of British rule, and probably also in the 
interests of the people of India generally, that the small, 
ill-governed, and eternally fighting states of India 



Io8 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

should come under the suzerainty of a single powerful 
power. It may be regarded as a historical misfortune 
that this power happened then to be foreign, though 
many regard this contact with a virile civilization as 
the making of India. This suzerainty could then be 
established duly by entering into treaties with these 
states and guaranteeing them certain rights and privi- 
leges. But these treaties have now assumed in the 
eyes of the descendants of the original princes an air of 
inspiration; they have become a kind of perpetuity. 
They always come in the way of any improvement. 
When any new policy is proposed to them, they are 
always prepared to say, 'This is not in the bond.' 
One may be allowed to speculate as to how many of 
these Highnesses would have survived to this day to 
put forward this claim in the absence of the suzerain 
power. Thrones in ancient days were as unstable 
as they are becoming now in Europe. It is hardly 
possible that the present popular wave in Europe 
would not have touched our Native States. The 
subjects of the states would have clamoured for a 
recognition of their rights, and they would have had 
their way. But now the princes feel quite secure. 
Have they not got their treaties? As a result there 
is no political life at all in the Native States. The 
most ardent advocate of Home Rule would be most 
violently against migration to a Native State. The 
real problem of the Native States is how to get over 
the treaties when they conflict with the interests of 
their subjects. The questions discussed at the Chiefs' 
Conference leave us comparatively cold, as they entirely 
neglect the people most concerned. The questions of 
the rights of the chiefs and their salutes or precedence 



THE NATIVE STATES I09 

are in our opinion of a very secondary importance. 
A renowned statesman in Europe gave at the utmost 
a life of a dozen years to the most solemn treaty 
between two countries, for in that period circumstances 
alter and the solid foundation for the treaty cracks. 
Is it not high time that the treaties with the chiefs 
should be revised after over a hundred years? It 
would indeed redound to their credit if the chiefs them- 
selves come forward to submit to such readjustment. 
Perhaps their autocratic and irresponsible power may 
have to suffer some diminution. But if they consent 
to that diminution so as to give it to their subjects in 
the modern democratic spirit, the real power and 
influence of the Native States will increase incalculably. 
It is in this direction we wish to see a solution of the 
problem of the Native States which are nowadays 
working as a brake on our national progress." 



r 



X 

THE PROPOSALS 



There are epochs in the history of the 
world when in a few raging years the 
character, the destiny, of the whole race is 
determined for unknown ages. This is one. 

David Lloyd George 

"Sowing the Winter Wheat." Speech 
delivered at Carnarvon, to a meeting of 
constituents, after becoming Prime Mm- 
ister, February 3, 191 7. 

Part II of the Report contains the scheme which 
Mr. Montagu and Lord Chelmsford propose for the 
solution of the problem which they had set themselves 
to solve in Part I. In giving their reasons for a new 
policy they observe: 

"iVo further development {on old lines) is possible 
unless we are going to give the people of India some 
responsibility for their own government. But no one 
can imagine that no further development is necessary. 
It is evident that the present machinery of government 
no longer meets the needs of the time; it works slowly and 
it produces irritation; there is a widespread demand 
on the part of educated Indian opinion for its altera- 
tion; and the need for advance is recognised by official 
opinion also." [Italics are ours.] 

The new policy sketched by them is, in their judg- 
ment, "the logical outcome of the past. Indians 

no 



THE PROPOSALS III 

must be enabled, in so far as they attain responsibility, 
to determine for themselves what they want done 

". . . such limitations on powers as we are now 
proposing are due only to the obvious fact that time is 
necessary in order to train both representatives and 
electorates for the work which we desire them to 
undertake; and that we offer Indians opportunities at 
short intervals to prove the progress they are making 
and to make good their claim, not by the method of 
agitation but by positive demonstration, to the further 
stages in self-government which we have just indi- 
cated." 

That is the only basis on which they maintain they 
can hope to see in India '^the growth of a conscious 
feeling of organic unity with the Empire as a whole." 
With these and a few more prefatory remarks about 
the educational problem and the attitude of the ryot 
and the enunciation of the general principles on which 
their proposals are based they proceed to formulate 
their scheme, starting first with the provinces. 



The proposals relating to Provincial Government 
may be noticed under the following heads: 

(a) Financial devolution: It is proposed that hence- 
forth there should be a complete separation of the 
provincial finances from those of the Government of 
India; that, reserving certain sources of revenue for 
the Government of India, all others should be made 
over to the Provincial Governments with the proviso 
that the first charge on all Provincial revenues will be 
a contribution towards the maintenance of the Govern- 
ment of India, considered necessary and demanded 



112 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

by the latter. A certain amount of power to impose 
fresh taxes and to raise loans is also conceded to the 
provincial Governments subject to the veto of the 
Government of India. 

(b) Legislative devolution: ''It is our intention," 
say the authors of the report, "to reserve to the Govern- 
ment of India a general overriding power of legislation 
for the discharge of all functions which it will have to 
perform. It should be enabled under this power to 
intervene in any province for the protection and 
enforcement of the interests for which it is responsible; 
to legislate on any provincial matter in respect of 
which uniformity of legislation is desirable, either for 
the whole of India or for any two or more provinces; 
and to pass legislation which may be adopted either 
simpliciter or with modifications by any province 
which may wish to make use of it. We think that the 
Government of India must be the sole judge of the 
propriety of any legislation which it may undertake 
under any one of these categories, and that its com- 
petence so to legislate should not be open to challenge 
in the courts. Subject to these reservations we intend 
that within the field which may be marked off for 
provincial legislative control the sole legislative power 
shall rest with the provincial legislatures." It is not 
proposed to put a statutory limitation on the power 
of the Government of India to legislate for the 
provinces, but it is hoped that "constitutional practice" 
will prevent the central Government interfering in 
provincial matters unless the interests for which the 
latter is responsible are directly affected. 

(c) Provincial Executive: Article 220 gives the 
Governor the power to appoint "one or two additional 



THE PROPOSALS II3 

members of his Government as members without 
portfolio for purposes of consultation and advice." 

These, in substance, are the proposals of the Secre- 
tary of State and the Government of India for the 
future government of the provinces into which India 
is divided. Some of these latter and some other 
tracts are expressly excluded from the operation of 
these recommendations. It will be at once observed 
that this is neither autonomy nor home rule. It is a 
kind of hybrid system with final powers of veto and 
control vested in the Government of India. The 
provision as to Provincial Legislatures make it still 
more complicated. 

"Let us now explain how we contemplate in future 
that the executive Governments of the provinces 
shall be constituted. As we have seen, three provinces 
are now governed by a Governor and an Executive 
Council of three members, of whom one is in practice 
an Indian and two are usually appointed from the 
Indian Civil Service, although the law says only that 
they must be qualified by twelve years' service under 
the Crown in India. One province, Bihar and Orissa, 
is administered by a Lieutenant-Governor with a 
council of three constituted in the same way. The 
remaining five provinces, that is to say, the three 
Lieutenant- Governorships of the United Provinces, 
the Punjab and Burma and the Chief Commissioner- 
ships of the Central Provinces and Assam are under 
the administration of a single official Head. We 
find throughout India a very general desire for the 
extension of Council government. . . . Our first 
proposition, therefore, is that in all these provinces 
singleheaded administration must cease and be re- 
placed by collective administration. 

"In determining the structure of the Executive 
we have to bear in mind the duties with which it will 



114 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

be charged. We start with the two postulates; the 
complete responsibility for the government cannot be 
given immediately without inviting a breakdown, 
and that some responsibility must be given at once if 
our scheme is to have any value. We have defined 
responsibility as consisting primarily in amenability 
to constituents, and in the second place in amenability 
to an assembly. We do not believe that there is any 
way of satisfying these governing conditions other 
than by making a division of the functions of the 
Government, between those which may be made over 
to popular control and those which for the present 
must remain in official hands. . . . We may call 
these the 'reserved' and 'transferred' subjects respec- 
tively. It then follows that for the management of 
these two categories there must be some form of 
executive body, with a legislative organ in harmony 
with it. . . . 



"We propose therefore that in each province the 
executive Government should consist of two parts. 
One part would comprise the head of the province 
and an executive council of two members. In all 
provinces the head of the Government would be 
known as Governor. . . . One of the two Executive 
Councillors would in practice be a European qualified 
by long official experience, and the other would be an 
Indian. It has been urged that the latter should be 
an elected member of the provincial legislative council. 
It is unreasonable that choice should be so limited. 
It should be open to the Governor to recommend 
whom he wishes. . . . The Governor in council 
would have charge of the reserved subjects. The 
other part of the government would consist of one 
member or more than one member, according to the 
number and. importance of the transferred subjects, 
chosen by the Governor from the elected members of 
the Legislative council. They would be known as 
ministers. They would be members of the executive 



THE PROPOSALS II5 

Government but not members of the Executive Coun- 
cil; they would be appointed for the life- time of the 
legislative council, and if reelected to that body would 
be re-eligible for appointment as members of the 
Executive. As we have said, they would not hold 
ofl&ce at the will of the legislature but at that of their 
constituents. 

"The portfolios dealing with the transferred sub- 
jects would be committed to the ministers, and on 
these subjects the ministers together with the Governor 
would form the administration. On such subjects 
their decision would be final, subject only to the 
Governor's advice and control. We do not con- 
template that from the outset the Governor should 
occupy the position of a purely constitutional Governor 
who is bound to accept the decisions of his ministers." 

(d) Provincial Legislatures: "We propose there 
shall be in each province an enlarged legislative 
council, differing in size and composition from province 
to province, with a substantial elected majority, 
elected by direct election on a broad franchise, with 
such communal and special representation as may be 
necessary." 

The questions of franchise and special and com- 
munal representation have been entrusted to a special 
committee the report of which is shortly expected. 
The same committee will also decide how many official 
members there will be on each Legislative Council. 
It is provided that the Governor shall be the President 
of the Council and will have the power to nominate a 
Vice-president from the official members. As to the 
effect of resolutions it is said that "we do not propose 
that resolutions, whether on reserved or transferred 
subjects should be binding." 

The classification of the reserved and transferred 



Il6 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

subjects was also left to a special committee which has 
since conclude;d its labours and whose report is awaited 
with interest. 

Legislation on reserved subjects: 

"For the purpose of enabling the provincial Govern- 
ment to get through its legislation on reserved subjects, 
we propose that the head of the Government should 
have power to certify that a Bill deahng with a reserved 
subject is a measure 'essential to the discharge of his 
responsibility for the peace or tranquiUity of the 
province or of any part thereof, or for the discharge of 
his responsibility for the reserved subjects.' . . . The 
Bill will be read and its general principles discussed 
in the full legislative council. It will at this stage be 
open to the council by a majority vote to request the 
Governor to refer to the Government of India, whose 
decision on the point shall be final, on the question 
whether the certified Bill deals with a reserved subject. 
If no such reference is made, or if the Government of 
India decide that the certificate has been properly 
given, the Bill will then be automatically referred to a 
Grand Committee of the council. Its composition 
should reproduce as nearly as possible the proportion of 
the various elements in the larger body. . . . the grand 
committee in every council should be constituted so 
as to comprise from 40 to 50 per cent, of its strength. 
It should be chosen for each Bill, partly by election by 
ballot, and partly by nomination. The Governor 
should have power to nominate a bare majority ex- 
clusive of himself. Of the members so nominated 
not more than two-thirds should be officials, and the 
elected element should be elected ad hoc by the elected 
members of the council on the system of the transferable 
vote." 

"On reference to the grand committee, the Bill 
will be debated by that body in the ordinary course, 
if necessary referred to a select committee, to which 



THE PROPOSALS 



117 



body we think that the grand committee should have 
power to appoint any member of the legislative council 
whether a member of the grand committee or not. 
The select committee will, as at present, have power 
to take evidence. Then, after being debated in the 
grand committee and modified as may be determined, 
the Bill will be reported to the whole council. The 
council will have the right to discuss the Bill again 
generally, but will not be able to reject it, or to amend 
it except on the motion of a member of the executive 
council. The Governor will then appoint a time 
limit within which the Bill may be debated in the 
council, and on its expiry it will pass automatically. 
But during such discussion the council will have the 
right to pass a resolution recording any objection 
which refers to the principle or details of the measure 
(but not, of course, to the certificate of its character), 
and any such resolution will accompany the Act when, 
after being signed by the Governor, it is submitted to 
the Governor General and the Secretary of State." 

Provincial Budget: . . . the provincial budget should 
be framed by the executive Government as a whole. 
The first charge on provincial revenues will be the 
contribution to the Government of India; and after 
that the supply for the reserved subjects will have 
priority. The allocation of supply for the transferred 
subjects will be decided by the ministers. If the 
revenue is insufiicient for their needs, the question of 
new taxation will be decided by the Governor and the 
ministers. We are bound to recognise that in time 
new taxation will be necessary, for no conceivable 
economies can finance the new developments which 
are to be anticipated. The budget will then be laid 
before the council which will discuss it and vote by 
resolution upon the allotments. If the legislative 
council rejects or modifies the proposed allotment for 
reserved subjects, the Governor should have power to 
insist on the whole or any part of the allotment orig- 
inally provided, if for reasons to be stated he certifies 



Il8 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

its necessity in the terms which we have already 
suggested. We are emphatically of opinion that the 
Governor in Council must be empowered to obtain 
the supply which he declares to be necessary for the 
discharge of his responsibilities. Except in so far as 
the Governor exercises this power the budget would 
be altered in accordance with the resolutions carried 
in council." 

Modification of the Scheme hy the Government of India. 
*' After five years' time from the first meeting of the 
reformed councils we suggest that the Government of 
India should hear applications from either the pro- 
vincial Government or the provincial council for the 
modification of the reserved and transferred lists of 
the province; and that, after considering the evidence 
laid before them, they should recommend for the 
approval of the Secretary of State the transfer of 
such further subjects to the transferred list as they 
think desirable. On the other hand, if it should be 
made plain to them that certain functions have been 
seriously maladministered, it will be open to them, 
with the sanction of the Secretary of State, to retransfer 
subjects from the transferred to the reserved list, or 
to place restrictions for the future on the minister's 
powers in respect of certain transferred subjects. . . . 
But it is also desirable to complete the responsibility 
of the ministers for the transferred subjects. This 
should come in one of two ways, either at the initiative 
of the council if it desires and is prepared to exercise 
greater control over the ministers, or at the discretion 
of the Government of India, which may wish to make 
this change as a condition of the grant of new, or of 
the maintainance of existing, powers. We propose, 
therefore, that the Government of India may, when 
hearing such applications, direct that the ministers' 
salaries, instead of any longer being treated as a 
reserved subject, and, therefore, protected in the last 
resort by the Governor's order from interference should 
be specifically voted each year by the legislative council; 



THE PPOPOSALS II9 

or, failing such direction by the Government of India, 
it should be open to the councils at that time or subse- 
quently to demand by resolution that such ministers' 
salaries should be so voted, and the Government of 
India should thereupon give effect to such request." 

Periodic commissions: , . . Ten years after the first 
meeting of the new councils established under the 
Statute a commission should be appointed to review 
the position. Criticism has been expressed in the 
past of the composition of Royal Commissions, and it 
is our intention that the commission which we suggest 
should be regarded as authoritative and should derive 
its authority from Parliament itself. The names of 
the commissioners, therefore, should be submitted by 
the Secretary of State to both Houses of Parliament for 
approval by resolution. The commissioners' mandate 
should be to consider whether by the end of the term 
of the legislature then in existence it would be possible 
to establish complete responsible government in any 
province or provinces, or how far it would be possible 
to approximate it in others; to advise on the continued 
reservation of any departments for the transfer of 
which to popular control it has been proved to their 
satisfaction that the time had not yet come; to recom- 
mend the retransfer of other matters to the control 
of the Governor in Council if serious maladministration 
were established; and to make any recommendations 
for the working of responsible government or the 
improvement of the constitutional machinery which 
experience of the systems in operation may show to be 
desirable. . . . 

''There are several other important matters, germane 
in greater or less degree to our main purpose, which the 
commission should review. They should investigate 
the progress made in admitting Indians into the higher 
ranks of the public service. They should examine 
the apportionment of the financial burden of India 
with a view to adjusting it more fairly between the 
provinces. The commission should also examine the 



I20 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

development of education among the people and the 
progress and working of local self-governing bodies. 
Lastly the commission should consider the working of 
the franchise and the constitution of electorates, 
including the important matter of the retention of 
communal representation. Indeed, we regard the 
development of a broad franchise as the arch on which 
the edifice of self-government must be raised; for we 
have no intention that our reforms should result 
merely in the transfer of powers from a bureaucracy to 
an oligarchy. ..." 

''In proposing the appointment of a commission ten 
years after the new Act takes effect we wish to guard 
against possible misunderstanding. We would not 
be taken as implying that there can be established by 
that time complete responsible government in the 
provinces. In many of the provinces no such con- 
summation can follow in the time named. The pace 
will be everywhere unequal, though progress in one 
province will always stimulate progress elsewhere; 
but undue expectations might be aroused, if we indi- 
cated any opinion as to the degree of approximation 
to complete self-government that might be reached 
even in one or two of the most advanced provinces. 
The reasons that make complete responsibility at 
present impossible are likely to continue operative in 
some degree even after a decade." 

II 

The proposals regarding the Government of India 
called the Central Government may be thus summed 
up: 

(a) General: *'We have already made our opinion 
clear that pending the development of responsible 
government in the provinces the Government of India 
must remain responsible only to Parliament. In 
other words, in all matters which it judges to be essen- 



THE PROPOSALS 121 

tial to the discharge of its responsibilities for peace, 
order, and good government it must, saving only for 
its accountability to Parliament, retain indisputable 
power." 

(b) The Governor GeneroTs Executive Council: 
''We would therefore abolish such statutory restric- 
tions as now exist in respect of the appointment of 
Members of the Governor General's Council, so as to 
give greater elasticity both in respect to the size of 
the Government and the distribution of work." 

At present there is one Indian member in the 
Viceroy's Executive Council consisting of six ordinary 
members and one extraordinary besides the Viceroy. 
This scheme recommends the appointment of another 
Indian. 

(c) The Indian Legislative Council. 

I. Legislative Assembly: " We recommend therefore 
that the strength of the legislative council, to be known 
in future as the Legislative Assembly of India, should 
be raised to a total strength of about loo members, so 
as to be far more truly representative of British India. 
We propose that two-thirds of this total should be 
returned by election; and that one- third should be 
nominated by the Governor General, of which third 
not less than a third again should be non-officials 
selected with the object of representing minority or 
special interests. . . . Some special representation, 
we think, there must be, as for European and Indian 
commerce, and also for the large landlords. There 
should be also communal representation for Muham- 
madans in most provinces and also for Sikhs in the 
Punjab." 

II. The Council of State: "We do not propose to 
institute a complete bi-cameral system, but to create 
a second chamber, known as the Council of State, 
which shall take its part in ordinary legislative business 
and shall be the final legislative authority in matters 



122 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

which the government regards as essential. The 
Council of State will be composed of 50 members, 
exclusive of the Governor General, who would be 
President, with power to appoint a Vice-President who 
would normally take his place: not more than 25 will 
be officials, including the members of the executive 
council, and 4 would be non-officials nominated by the 
Governor General. Official members would be eligible 
for nomination to both the Legislative Assembly and 
the Council of State. There would be 21 elected 
members of whom 15 will be returned by the non- 
official members of the provincial legislative councils, 
each council returning two members, other than those 
of Burma, the Central Provinces and Assam which 
will return one member each. . . . 

''Inasmuch as the Council of State will be the 
supreme legislative authority for India on all crucial 
questions and also the revising authority upon all 
Indian legislation, we desire to attract to it the services 
of the best men available in the country. We desire 
that the Council of State should develop something 
of the experience and dignity of a body of Elder States- 
men; and we suggest therefore that the Governor 
General in Council should make regulations as to the 
qualification of candidates for election to that body 
which will ensure that their status and position and 
record of services will give to the Council a senatorial 
character, and the qualities usually regarded as appro- 
priate to a revising chamber." 

III. Legislative procedure: ''Let us now explain 
how this legislative machinery will work. It will 
make for clearness to deal separately with Government 
Bills and Bills introduced by non-official members. 
A Government Bill will ordinarily be introduced and 
carried through all the usual stages in the Legislative 
Assembly. It will then go in the ordinary course to 
the Council of State, and if there amended in any 
way which the Assembly is not willing to accept, it 
will be submitted to a joint session of both Houses, 



THE PROPOSALS 1 23 

by whose decision its ultimate fate will be decided. 
This will be the ordinary course of legislation. But 
it might well happen that amendments made by the 
Council of State were such as to be essential in the 
view of the Government if the purpose with which the 
Bill was originally introduced was to be achieved, and 
in this case the Governor General in Council would 
certify that the amendments were essential to the 
interests of peace, order, or good government. The 
assembly would then not have power to reject or 
modify these amendments, nor would they be open 
to revision in a joint session. 

"We have to provide for two other possibilities. 
Cases may occur in which the Legislative Assembly 
refuses leave to the introduction of a Bill or throws 
out a Bill which the Government regarded as necessary. 
For such a contingency we would provide that if leave 
to introduce a Government Bill is refused, or if the Bill 
is thrown out at any stage, the Government should 
have the power, on the certificate of the Governor 
General in Council that the Bill is essential to the 
interests of peace, order, or good government, to refer 
it de novo to the Council of State; and if the Bill, after 
being taken in all its stages through the Council of 
State, was passed by that body, it would become law 
without further reference to the Assembly. Further, 
there may be cases when the consideration of a measure 
by both chambers would take too long if the emergency 
which called for the measure is to be met. Such a 
contingency should rarely arise; but we advise that in 
cases of emergency, so certified by the Governor 
General in Council, it should be open to the Govern- 
ment to introduce a Bill in the Council of State, and 
upon its being passed there merely to report it to the 
Assembly." 

IV. Powers of dissolution, etc.: ''The Governor 
General should in our opinion have power at any time 
to dissolve either the Legislative Assembly or the 
Council of State or both these bodies. It is perhaps 



124 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OE INDIA 

unnecessary to add that the Governor General and the 
Secretary of State should retain their existing powers 
of assent, reservation, and disallowance to all Acts of 
the Indian legislature. The present powers of the 
Governor General in Council under section 71 of the 
Government of India Act. 191 5, to make regulations 
proposed by local Governments for the peace and 
good government of backward tracts of territory 
should also be preserved; with the modification that 
it will in future rest with the Head of the province 
concerned to propose such regulations to the Govern- 
ment of India." 

V. Fiscal legislation: "Fiscal legislation will, of 
course, be subject to the procedure which we have 
recommended in respect of Government Bills. The 
budget will be introduced in the Legislative Assembly 
but the Assembly will not vote it. Resolutions upon 
budget matters and upon all other questions, whether 
moved in the Assembly or in the Council of State, will 
continue to be advisory in character." 

(d) Privy Council: "We have a further recom- 
mendation to make. We would ask that His Majesty 
may be graciously pleased to approve the institution 
of a Privy Council for India. . . . The Privy CounciFs 
ofiice would be to advise the Governor General when 
he saw fit to consult it on questions of policy and 
administration." 

(e) Periodic commissions: "At the end of the last 
chapter we recommended that ten years after the 
institution of our reforms, and again at intervals of 
twelve years thereafter, a commission approved by 
Parliament should investigate the working of the 
changes introduced into the provinces, and recommend 
as to their further progress. It should be equally the 
duty of the commission to examine and report upon 
the new constitution of the Government of India, with 
particular reference to the working of the machinery 
for representation, the procedure by certificate, and 
the results of joint sessions." 



THE PROPOSALS 

ni 

India Office in London 



125 



The principal proposals under this head may be thus 
mmarized ; 



summarized; 



"We advise that the Secretary of State's salary, 
like that of all other Ministers of the Crown, should 
be defrayed from home revenues and voted annually 
by Parliament. This will enable any live questions 
of Indian administration to be discussed by the House 
of Commons in Committee of Supply. ... It might 
be thought to follow that the whole charges of the 
India Office establishment should similarly be trans- 
ferred to the home Exchequer; but this matter is 
complicated by a series of past transactions, and by 
the amount of agency work which the India Office does 
on behalf of the Government of India; and we advise 
that our proposed committee upon the India Office 
organization should examine it and taking these fac- 
tors into consideration, determine which of the vari- 
ous India Office charges should be so transferred, and 
which can legitimately be retained as a burden on 
Indian revenues. 

''But the transfer of charges which we propose, 
although it will give reality to the debates on Indian 
affairs, will not ensure in Parliament a better informed 
or a more sustained interest in India. We feel that 
this result can only be accomplished by appointing a 
Select Committee of Parliament on Indian affairs." 

The above in substance is the proposed scheme. 
In India it has met with varied response. The Euro- 
pean community does not approve of it. They think 
it is too radical. The European Services have struck 
a note of rebellion threatening to resign in case of its 
acceptance by Parhament. The Indian poHticians 



126 



THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 



are divided into two camps. Their views are best 
represented by the following tabular statement which 
we reproduce from the Indian newspapers. 



A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE RESOLUTIONS RE- 
LATING TO THE REFORM PROPOSALS PASSED 

Ordinary Rights of Citizens 



By the Special Congress 

Resolution IV. The Govern- 
ment of India shall have un- 
divided administrative authority 
on matters directly concerning 
peace, tranquilUty and defence 
of the country subject to the 
following: 

That the Statute to be passed 
by ParHament should include 
the Declaration of the Rights of 
the people of India as British 
citizens: 

(a) That aU Indian subjects 
of his Majesty and all^ the 
subjects naturalized or resident 
in India are equal before the 
law, and there shall be no penal 
nor administrative law in force 
in the country whether substan- 
tive or procedural of a discrimi- 
native nature. 

(b) That no Indian subject 
of his Majesty shall be Hable to 
suffer in Uberty, hfe, property 
or of association, free speech or 
in respect of writing, except 
imder sentence by an ordinary 
Court of Justice, and as a result 
of a lawful and open trial. 

(c) That every Indian sub- 
ject shall be entitled to bear 
arms, subject to the purchase 
of a licence, as in Great Britain, 
and that the right shall not be 
taken away save by a sentence 
gf an ordinary Court of Justice. 



By the Moderate Conference 

(V) This Conference urges 
that legislation of an exceptional 
character having the effect of 
curtailing ordinary rights such 
as the freedom of the press and 
public meetings and open judi- 
cial trial, should not be carried 
through the Council of State 
alone, or in spite of the declared 
opinion of the Legislative As- 
sembly of India, except in a 
time of war or internal disturb- 
ance, without the approval of 
the Select Committee of the 
House of Commons proposed to 
be set up under the Scheme 
unless such legislation is of a 
temporary character and limited 
to a period of one year only, 
the said legislation being in any 
case made renewable without 
such approval in the last resort. 

lO 

(c) All racial inequalities in 
respect of trial by jury, the 
rules made under the Arms Act, 
etc. should be removed and the 
latter should be so amended as 
to provide for the possession and 
carrying of arms by Indians 
imder liberal conditions. 

(d) A complete separation 
of judicial and executive func- 
tions of all district officers 
should be made, at least in all 



THE PROPOSALS 



127 



(d) That the Press shall be 
free, and that no Ucence nor 
security shall be demanded on 
the registration of a press or a 
newspaper. 

(e) That corporal punish- 
ment shall not be inflicted on 
any Indian serving in his Maj- 
esty's Army or Navy save under 
conditions applying equally to 
all other British subjects. 



major provinces, at once, and 
the judiciary placed under the 
jurisdiction of the highest court 
of the province. 



Fiscal Autonomy 



Resolution V. This Congress 
is strongly of opinion that it is 
essential for the welfare of the 
Indian people that the Indian 
Legislature should have the 
same measure of fiscal autonomy 
which the self-governing domin- 
ions of the Empire possess. 



(VI) Saving such equal and 
equitable Imperial obligations 
as may be agreed upon as resting 
on all parts of the Empire, the 
Government of India, acting 
under the control of the Legisla- 
ture, should enjoy the same 
power of regulating the fiscal 
policy of India as the Govern- 
ments of the self-governing 
dominions enjoy of regulating 
their fiscal poUcy. 



Reform Proposals 



Resolution VI. That this 
Congress appreciates the earnest 
attempt on the part of the Right 
Hon. the Secretary of State and 
his Excellency the Viceroy to 
inaugurate a system of responsi- 
ble government in India, and, 
while it recognizes that some of 
the proposals constitute an 
advance on the present condi- 
tions in some directions, it is of 
opinion that the proposals are 
as a whole disappointing and 
unsatisfactory, and suggests the 
following modifications as abso- 
lutely necessary to constitute a 
substantial step towards re- 
sponsible government: 



(III) 'This Conference cor- 
dially welcomes the Reform 
Proposals of the Secretary of 
State and the Viceroy of India 
as constituting a distinct advance 
on present conditions as regards 
the Government of India and 
the Provincial Governments and 
also a real step towards the 
progressive realization of "re- 
sponsible government" in the 
Provincial Government in due 
fulfillment of the terms of the 
announcement of August 20, 
igiy. As such this Conference 
accords its hearty support to 
those proposals, and, while sug- 
gesting necessary modifications 
and improvements therein, ex- 
presses its grateful appreciation 



128 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

of the earnest effort of Mr. 
Montagu and Lord Chelmsford 
to start the country on a career 
of genuine and lasting progress 
towards the promised goal.' 

(V) 'This Conference regards 
all attempts at the condemnation 
or rejection of the Reform 
Scheme as a whole as ill advised, 
and in particular protests em- 
phatically against the reaction- 
ary attitude assumed towards it 
by the Indo-British Association 
and some European pubUc bodies 
in this country which is certain 
to produce, if successfully per- 
1 sisted in, an extremely undesir- 

able state of feeling between 
England and India and imperil 
the cause of ordered progress in 
this country. This Conference, 
therefore, most earnestly urges 
his Majesty's Government and 
•V Parliament of the United King- 

dom to give effect to the provi- 
sions of the Scheme and the 
suggestion of its supporters in 
regard thereto as early as possible 
by suitable legislation. 

Government of India 

(i) That a system of reserved (V) (a) 'This Conference, 

and transferred subjects similar while making due allowance for 

to that proposed for the prov- the necessities or drawbacks of 

inces, shall be adopted for the transitional scheme, urges that, 

Central Government. having regard to the terms of 

(2) That the reserved sub- the announcement of August 

jects shall be foreign affairs 20, 191 7, and in order that the 

(excepting relations with the progress of India towards the 

colonies and dominions) army, goal of a self-governing unit of 

navy, and relations with Indian the British Empire may be 

Ruling Princes, and subject to facilitated and not unduly de- 

the declaration of rights con- layed or hampered, as also with 

tained in resolution IV, the a view to avoid the untoward 

matters directly affecting public consequences of a legislature 

peace, tranquiUity and defence containing a substantially elected 

of the country, and all other popular element being allowed 

subjects shall be transferred merely to indulge in criticism 

subjects* iinchecked by responsibility, it 



THE PROPOSALS 



129 



(3) The allotments required 
for reserved subjects should be 
the first charge on the revenues. 

(4) The procedure for the 
adoption of the budget should be 
on the lines laid down for the 
provinces. 

(5) All legislation should be 
by Bills introduced into the 
Legislative Assembly, provided 
that, if, in the case of reserved 
subjects, the Legislative Council 
does not pass such measures as 
the Government may deem 
necessary, the Governor General- 
in-Council may provide for the 
same by regulations, such regula- 
tions to be in force for one year 
but not to be renewed unless 40 
per cent, of the members of the 
Assembly present and voting 
are in favour of them. 

(6) There shall be no Council 
of State, but if the Council of 
State is to be constituted, at 
least half of its total strength 
shall consist of elected members, 
and that procedure by certifica- 
tion shall be confined to the 
reserved subjects. 

(7) At least half the number 
of Executive Councillors (if 
there be more than one) in 
charge of reserved subjects 
should be Indians. 

(8) The number of members 
of the Legislative Assembly 
should be raised to 150 and the 
proportion of the elected mem- 
bers should be four-fifths. 

(g) The President and the 
Vice-President of the Legislative 
Assembly should be elected by 
the Assembly. 

(10) The Legislative Assem- 
bly should have power to make 
or modify its own rules of 
business and they shall not 
require the sanction of the 
Governor General. 



is essential that the principle of 
responsible government' should 
be introduced also in the Govern- 
ment of India, simultaneously 
with a similar reform in the 
provinces. There should, there- 
fore, be a division of functions in 
the Central Government into 
'reserved' and 'transferred' as a 
part of the present instalment of 
reforms and the Committee on 
division of functions should be 
instructed to investigate the 
subject and make recommenda- 
tions. 

(b) While, as suggested 
above, some measures of transfer 
of power to the Indian Legisla- 
ture should be introduced at the 
commencement, provision should 
be made for future progress 
towards complete responsible 
government of the Government 
of India by specifically authoriz- 
ing the proposed periodic Com- 
missions to inquire into the 
matter and to recommend to 
ParHament such further advance 
as may be deemed necessary 
or desirable in that behalf. 

(c) The power of certification 
given to the Governor- General 
should be limited to matters 
involving the defence of the 
country's foreign and political 
relations, and peace and order 
and should not be extended to 
'good government' generally or 
'sound financial administration.' 

(e) This Conference recom- 
mends that the composition of 
the Council of State should be so 
altered as to ensure that one half 
of its total strength shall consist 
of elected members. 

(f) The Indian element in 
the Executive Government of 
India should be one-half of the 
total number of that Govera- 
ment. 



130 



THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 



(ii) There shall be an obliga- 
tion to convene meetings of the 
Council and Assembly at stated 
intervals, or on the requistion 
of a certain proportion of 
members. 

(12) A statutory guarantee 
should be given that full re- 
sponsible government should be 
estabUshed in the whole of 
British India vsdthin a period 
not exceeding 15 years. 

(13) That there should be no 
Privy Council for the present. 



Provincial Governments 



1. There should be no addi- 
tional members of the Executive 
Government without portfolios. 

2. From the commencement 
of the first Council the principle 
of responsibility of the ministers 
to the legislature shall come into 
force. 

3. The status and salary of 
the ministers shall be the same 
as that of the members of 
Executive Council. 

4. At least half the number of 
Executive Councillors in charge 
of reserved subjects (if there be 
more than one) should be 
Indians. 

5. The Budget shall be under 
the control of the Legislature 
subject to the contribution to 
the Government of India, and 
during the Hfe-time of the 
reformed Councils, to the alloca- 
tion of a fixed sum for the re- 
served subjects; and should 
fresh taxation be necessary, it 
should be imposed by the pro- 
vincial Governments, as a whole 
for both transferred and reserved 
subjects. 

Legislature 
I. While holding that the 
people are ripe for the introduc- 



(e) The proposal to appoint 
an additional Member or Mem- 
bers from among the senior 
officials, without portfolios and 
without vote for purposes of 
consultation and advice only, 
but as Members of the Executive 
Government, in the provinces 
should be dropped. 

(i) 

(a) The status and emolu- 
ments of Ministers should be 
identical with those of Executive 
Councillors, and the Governor 
should not have greater power 
of control over them than over 
the latter. 

(b) Whatever power may be 
given to the Go vernor-in- Council 
to interfere with the decisions of 
the Governor and Ministers on 
the ground of their possible 
effects on the administration of 
the reserved subjects, corre- 
sponding power should be given 
to the Governor and Ministers 
in respect of decisions of the 
Governor-in-Council affecting 
directly or indirectly the ad- 
ministration of the transferred 
subjects. 

(d) Heads of provincial 
Governments in the major prov- 
inces should ordinarily be 



THE PROPOSALS 



131 



tion of full provincial autonomy 
the Congress is yet prepared 
with a view to faciHtating the 
passage of the Reforms, to 
leave the departments of Law, 
Police and Justice, (prisons 
excepted) in the hands of the 
Executive Government in all 
provinces for a period of six 
years. Executive and Judicial 
Departments must be separated 
at once. 

2. The President and the 
Vice-President should be elected 
by the Council. 

^ 3. That the proposal to in- 
stitute a Grand Committee shall 
be dropped. The Provincial 
Legislative Council shall legis- 
late in respect of all matters 
within the jurisdiction of pro- 
vincial Government, including 
Law, Justice and Police but 
where the Government is not 
satisfied with the decision of 
the Legislative Council in respect 
of matters relating to Law, 
Justice and PoUce, it shall be 
open to the Government to 
refer the matter to the Govern- 
ment of India. The Govern- 
ment of India may refer the 
matter to the Indian Legislature 
and the ordinary procedure shall 
follow. But if Grand Com- 
mittees are instituted, this Con- 
gress is of opinion, that not less 
than one-half of the strength 
shall be elected by the Legisla- 
tive Assembly. 

4. The proportion of elected 
members in the Legislative 
Council shall be four fifths. 

Elections 

5. Whenever the Legislative 
Assembly, the Council of State, 
or the Legislative Council is 
dissolved, it shall be obligatory 



selected from the ranks of public 
men in the United Kingdom. 

(e) No administrative con- 
trol over subjects vested in 
provincial Governments should 
be 'reserved' in the central 
Government particularly in re- 
spect of 'transferred' heads. 

(f) The Government of India 
should have no power to make a 
supplementary levy upon the 
provinces; they may only take 
loans from the latter on occasions 
of emergency. 

(2) This Conference recom- 
mends that the largest possible 
number of subjects should be 
included in the 'transferred' 
list in every province as the 
progress and conditions of each 
province may justify and that 
none mentioned in the Illustra- 
tive List No. II appended to 
the Report should, as far as 
possible, be 'reserved' in any 
province. 

IX (c) The Legislative Coun- 
cils should have the right to 
elect their own Presidents and 
Vice-Presidents. 

VIII (b) The elected element 
in the Provincial Legislative 
Councils should be four-fifths of 
the total strength of the Councils 
at least in the more advanced 
provinces. 

IX. I (a) It should be pro- 
vided that when a CouncU is 
dissolved by the Governor, a 
fresh election should be held and 
the new Council summoned not 
later than four months after the 
dissolution. 

VIII (a) The Franchise should 
be as wide and the composition 
of the Legislative Council should 
be as liberal as circumstances 
may admit in each province, the 
number of representatives of the 
general territorial electorates 



1^2 



THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 



on the Government as the case 
may be, to order the necessary 
elections, and to resummon the 
body dissolved within a period 
of three months from the date of 
dissolution. 

6. The Legislative Assembly 
should have power to make or 
modify its own rules of business 
and they shall not require the 
sanction of the Governor-Gen- 
eral. 

7. There should be an obliga- 
tion to convene meetings of the 
Coimcil and Assembly at stated 
intervals, or on the requisition 
of a certain proportion of 
members of the Assembly. 

8. No dissolution of the 
legislature shall take place except 
by way of an appeal to the 
electorate and the reason shall 
be stated in writing counter- 
signed by the Ministers. 



being fixed in every case at not 
less than one-half of the whole 
covmcil. 

(c) The franchise should be 
so broad and the electorates so 
devised as to secure to all classes 
of tax-payers their due represen- 
tation by election and the 
interests of those communities 
or groups of communities in 
Madras and the Bombay Deccan 
and elsewhere who at present 
demand special electoral protec- 
tion should be adequately safe- 
guarded by introducing a system 
of plural constituencies in which 
a reasonable number of seats 
should be reserved for those 
communities. 

(e) In the case of any com- 
munity for which separate special 
electorates may be deemed at 
present necessary, participation 
in the general territorial elec- 
torates, whether as voters or 
candidates, should not be per- 
mitted. 

(f) It shall be left to the 
option of an individual belonging 
to a community which is given 
separate representation to enrol 
himself as a voter either in the 
general or the communal elec- 
torate. 



Parliament and India Office 



(e) The control of Parlia- 
ment and of the Secretary of 
State must only be modified as 
the responsibility of the Indian 
and provincial Governments to 
the electorates is increased. No 
power over provincial Govern- 
ments now exercised by Parlia- 
ment and by the Secretary of 
State must be transferred to the 
Government of India, save in 
matters of routine administra- 



(XI) This Conference, while 
generally approving of the pro- 
posals embodied in the Report 
regarding the India Office and 
Parliamentary control, urges: — 

(a) That the adrmnistrative 
control of Parliament over the 
Government of India exercised 
through the Secretary of State 
should continue except in so far 
as the control of the legislature 
on the spot is substituted for 



THE PROPOSALS 



133 



tion until the latter is responsible 
to the electorates. 

(d) No financial or adminis- 
trative powers in regard to 
reserved subjects should be 
transferred to the provincial 
Governments until such time as 
they are made responsible regard- 
ing them to electorates, and until 
then the control of ParUament 
and the Secretary of State 
should continue. 

(b) The Council of India 
shall be abohshed, and there 
shall be two permanent Under- 
secretaries to assist the Secretary 
of State for India, one of whom 
shall be an Indian. 

(c) All charges in respect to 
the India Office establishment 
shall be placed on the British 
estimates. 

(d) The committee to be 
appointed to examine and report 
on the present constitution of 
the Council of India shall con- 
tain an adequate Indian element. 



the present Parliamentary con- 
trol. 

(d) That until the India 
Council can be abolished by 
substituting Indian control for 
the control of Parliament over 
the affairs of India, it should be 
a mere advisory body with its 
strength reduced to 8 members, 
four of whom should be Indians. 

(c) That at least a major 
part of the cost of the India 
Ofl&ce should be borne by the 
British Exchequer. 

(b) That Indian opinion 
should be represented on the 
Committee appointed to report 
upon the organisation of the 
India Office and the evidence of 
Indian witnesses invited. 



Mahomedan Representation 



Resolution VII. The propor- 
tion of Mahomedans in the 
Legislative Council and the 
Legislative Assembly as laid 
down in the Congress-League 
Scheme must be maintained. 



(VIII) (d) Mahomedan repre- 
sentation in every legislature 
should be in the proportions 
mentioned in the Scheme 
adopted by the Congress and 
the Muslim League at Lucknow 
in 1916. 



Army Commissions 



Resolution XII. This Con- 
gress places on record its deep 
disappointment at the altogether 
inadequate response made by the 
Government to the demand for 
the grant of commissions to 
Indians in the army, and is of 
opinion that steps should be 
immediately taken so as to 
enable the grant to Indians at 



(b) This Conference strongly 
urges that Indians should be 
nominated to 20 per cent., to 
start with, of King's commissions 
in the Indian Army and that 
adequate provision for training 
them should be made in this 
country itself. 



134 



THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 



an early date of at least 25 per 
cent, of the commissions in the 
army, the proportions to be 
gradually increased to 50 per 
cent, within a period of ten 
years. 



Public Services 



Resolution XVII. That this 
Congress is of opinion that the 
proportion of annual recruit- 
ment to the Indian civil service 
to be made in England should 
be 50 per cent, to start with, 
such recruitment to be by open 
competition in India from per- 
sons already appointed to the 
Provincial Civil Service. 



X (a) This Conference thanks 
the Secretary of State and the 
Viceroy for recommending that 
all racial bars should be aboUshed 
and for recognizing the principle 
of recruiting of all the Indian 
pubUc services in India and in 
England instead of any service 
being recruited for exclusively 
in the latter country. 



Franchise for Women 



Resolution VIII. Women 
possessing the same qualifica- 
tions as are laid down for men 
in any part of the Scheme shall 
not be disqualified on account 
of sex. 

Constitution of Councils 

Resolution XIII. That, so 
far as the question of determin- 
ing the franchise and the con- 
stituence and the composition 
of the Legislative Assemblies is 
concerned, this Congress is of 
opinion that, instead of being 
left to be dealt with by Com- 
mittees, it should be decided 
by the House of Commons and 
be incorporated in the statute 
to be framed for the constitution 
of the Indian Government. 

Resolution XIV. That as 
regards the Committee to advise 
on the question of the separation 
of Indian from provincial func- 
tions and also with regard to the 
Committee if any for the con- 



constitution of periodic 

Commission 

9 (b) Some provision should 
be made for the appointment and 
cooperation of quaUfied Indians 
on the periodic commission pro- 
posed to be appointed every ten 
or twelve years and it should 
further be provided that the 
first periodic commission shall 
come to India and submit its 
recommendations to ParUament 
before the expiry of the third 
Legislative Council after the 
Reform Scheme comes into 
operation and that every subse- 
quent periodic commission 
should be appointed at the end 
of every ten years. 



THE PROPOSALS I35 

sideration of reserved or an un- 
reserved department, this Con- 
gress is of opinion that the 
principle set forth in the above 
resolution should apply mutatis 
mutandis to the formation of the 
said Committee. 
Or 
In the alternative; if a Com- 
mittee is appointed for the 
purpose, the two non-official 
members of the Committee 
should be elected — one by the 
All-India Congress Committee 
and the other by the Council of 
the Moslem League while the 
coopted non-oflBicial for each 
province should be elected by 
the Provincirl Congress Com- 
mittee of that province. 

The All-India Muslim League is in substantial 
accord with the resolutions of the Special Congress. 
It will be easily seen that Indian opinion, of both 
Hindus and Mussulmans, is substantially in accord in 
their demands for the democratization of the Central 
government and in their criticism of the rest of the 
scheme. The Indians have thus exercised their right 
of self-determination through their popular bodies 
and are entitled to get what they demand. After all, 
what they ask for is only a modest instalment of 
autonomy under British control. 

In the appendices the reader will find a comparative 
table showing (a) the present Constitution of Govern- 
ment in India (b) the proposals of the Secretary of 
State and the Viceroy (c) and the Congress League 
Scheme. 



XI 

INDIA'S CLAIM TO FISCAL AUTONOMY 
^'INDUSTRIES AND TARIFFS" 

.... for equality of right amongst 
nations, small as well as great, is one of 
the fundamental issues this country and 
her allies are fighting to establish in this 
war. 

David Lloyd George 

"The War Aims of the AlHes." Speech 
delivered to delegates of the Trade Unions, 
at the Central Hall, Westminster, Janu- 
ary 5, 1918. 

I beg to record my strong opinion that 
in the matter of Indian industries we are 
bound to consider Indian interests firstly, 
secondly, and thirdly. I mean by ''firstly" 
that the local raw products should be util- 
ised, by secondly, that industries should 
be introduced and by "thirdly" that the 
profits of such industry should remain in 
the country. 

Sir Frederick Nicholson 

Quoted on page 300, Report of the 
Indian Industrial Commission, 19 16-19 18. 

Economic bondage is the worst of all bondages. 
Economic dependence, or the lack of economic inde- 
pendence, is the source of all misery, individual or 

136 



CLAIM TO FISCAL AUTONOMY 13 7 

national. A person economically dependent upon 
another is a virtual slave, despite appearances. He 
who supplies food and raiment and the necessities of 
life is the real master. 

The desire for gain dominates the world and all its 
activities. Even reHgion, as ordinarily understood, 
interpreted and administered, is a game of pounds 
and shillings, say what one may to the contrary. 
There are exceptions to this statement, but they are 
few and far between. The world does not subsist by 
bread alone, but without bread it cannot exist even 
for a minute. The generality of the world cares more 
for bread than for anything else, though there are 
individuals and groups of individuals who would not 
stoop to obtain bread by dishonorable means and 
those also who would die rather than obtain bread by 
the violation of their soul. 

There are numerous ways in which a subject nation 
feels the humiliation and helplessness of her position, 
but none is so telHng and so effective as the subordina- 
tion of her economic interests to those of the dominant 
power. This is especially true in these days of free 
and easy transportation, of quick journeys, and of 
scientific warfare. In any struggle between nations, 
the victory eventually must rest with the one in 
possession of the largest number of ''silver bullets." 
It is true that silver bullets alone will not do unless 
there are brains and bodies to use them, but the latter 
without the former are helpless. 

A nation may be the greatest producer of food; 
yet she may die of hunger from lack of abiHty to keep 
her own produce for herself. Food obeys the behest 
of the silver bullets. The law of self-preservation, 



138 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

therefore, requires only that nations be free to regulate 
their own household, subject to the condition that 
thereby they do not violate the rules of humanity or 
trample upon the rights of any human being. 

Mr. Montagu and Lord Chelmsford have, in parts 
of their Report, been extremely candid. The value of 
their joint production lies in this candidness. In no 
other part, perhaps, have they been so candid as in 
the one dealing with ''Industries and Tariff." In 
Paragraph 331 they frankly admit the truth of the 
following observation of the late Mr. Ranade on the 
economic effects of British rule in India: 

"The political domination of one country by another 
attracts far more attention than the more formidable, 
though more unfelt, domination which the capital, 
enterprise and skill of one country exercise over the 
trade and manufactures of another. This latter 
domination has an insidious influence which paralyses 
the springs of all the various activities which together 
make up the life of a nation." 

In the course of a letter addressed to the Westminster 
Gazette in 1917, Lord Curzon said that "the fiscal 
policy of India during the last thirty or forty years 
has been shaped far more in Manchester than in 
Calcutta." This candid admission about "the sub- 
ordination of Indian fiscal policy to the Secretary of 
State and a House of Commons powerfully affected 
by Lancashire influence," is the keynote of the Indian 
demand for Home Rule. The authors of the Montagu- 
Chelmsford Report say so quite frankly and fairly in 
Paragraphs 332 to 336 of their report, from which we 
make the following extracts: 



CLAIM TO FISCAL AUTONOMY T39 

''The people are poor; and their poverty raises the 
question whether the general level of well-being could 
not be materially raised by the development of in- 
dustries. It is also clear that the lack of outlet for 
educated youth is a serious misfortune which has 
contributed not a little in the past to poHtical unrest 
in Bengal. But perhaps an even greater mischief is 
the discontent aroused in the minds of those who are 
jealous for India by seeing that she is so largely de- 
pendent on foreign countries for manufactured goods. 
They noted that her foreign trade was always growing, 
but they also saw that its leading feature continued 
to be the barter of raw materials valued at relatively 
low prices for imported manufactures, which obviously 
afforded profits and prosperity to other countries 
industrially more advanced. Patriotic Indians might 
well ask themselves why these profits should not accrue 
to their country: and also why so large a portion of 
the industries which flourished in the country was 
financed by European capital and managed by Euro- 
pean skill." 

"The fact that India's foreign trade was largely 
with the United Kingdom gave rise to a suspicion that 
her industrial backwardness was positively encouraged 
in the interests of British manufactures, and the 
maintenance of the excise duty on locally manufactured 
cotton goods in the alleged interests of Lancashire is 
very widely accepted as a conclusive proof of such a 
purpose. On a smaller scale, the maintenance of a 
Stores Department at the India Office is looked upon 
as an encouragement to the Government to patronize 
British at the expense of local manufacturers." 

There can thus be no autonomy without fiscal 
autonomy. In fact, the latter alone is the determining 
characteristic of an autonomous existence. 

The one national trait which distinguishes the 
British from other nations of the world is their habit 
of truthfulness and frankness. When we say that 



I40 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

we do not thereby mean that all Britishers are equally 
truthful — to the same extent and degree. But we 
do mean that on the whole the British nation has a 
larger percentage of truthful and candid persons in 
her family than any other nation on the face of the 
earth. Where their interests clash with those of 
others, they can be as hard, exacting and cruel as any 
one else in the world. But repentance overtakes 
them sooner than it does the others. They have a 
queer but admirable faculty of introspection which 
few other people possess to the same extent and in 
the same numbers. This is what endears them even 
to those who are never tired of cursing their snobbish- 
ness and masterful imperialism. The faculty of 
occasionally seeing themselves with the eyes of others, 
makes them the most successful rulers of men. They 
are as a nation lacking in imagination, but there are 
individuals amongst them who can see, if they will, 
their own faults; who can and do speak out their 
minds honestly and truthfully, even though by so 
doing they may temporarily earn odium and un- 
popularity. 

The remarks and observations of the eminent 
authors of the Report relating to the fiscal relations 
of India and England reflect the honesty of their 
purpose and the sincerity of their mind as no other 
part of the Report does. They have entered upon the 
subject with great diffidence and, though expressing 
themselves with marked candor and fairness, have 
refrained from making any definite recommendations. 

In this respect it will be only fair to acknowledge the 
equally candid opinion of Mr. Austin Chamberlain, 
who, in 191 7, made a most significant confession by 



CLAIM TO FISCAL AUTONOMY 141 

stating on an important occasion that ''India will not 
remain, and ought not to remain content to be a hewer 
of wood and a drawer of water for the rest of the 
Empire." 

To our simple minds, not accustomed to the anom- 
alies of official life, it seems inexplicable how, after 
these candid admissions, the authors could have any 
hesitation in recommending the only remedy by which 
India's wrong could be righted and her economic 
rights secured in the future — viz., fiscal autonomy. 

In Paragraph 335 the authors of the report give the 
genesis of the Swadeshi boycott movement of 1905, 
and very pertinently observe that ''in Japanese progress 
and efficiency" the educated Indians see "an example 
of what could be eflFected by an Asiatic nation free of 
foreign control," or in other words, of what could be 
achieved by India, if she had a national government 
of her own interested in her industrial advance. Mr. 
Montagu and Lord Chelmsford thus rightly observe 
that "English theories to the appropriate limits of the 
State's activity are inapplicable in India" and that if 
the resources of the country are to be developed the 
Government must take action. 

"After the war," add the authors, "the need for 
industrial development will be all the greater unless 
India is to become a mere dumping-ground for the 
manufactures of foreign nations which will then be 
competing all the more keenly for the markets on 
which their political strength so perceptibly depends. 
India will certainly consider herself entitled to claim 
all the help that her Government can give her to 
enable her to take her place as a manufacturing coun- 
try; and unless the claim is admitted it will surely 



142 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

turn into an insistent request for a tariff which will 
penalize imported articles without respect of origin." 
Further on the Report states: 

*'We are agreed therefore that there must be a 
definite change of view; and that the Government 
must admit and shoulder its responsibility for furthering 
the industrial development of the country. The 
difficulties by this time are well-known. In the past, 
and partly as a result of recent swadeshi experiences, 
India's capital has not generally been readily available; 
among some communities at least there is apparent 
distaste for practical training, and a comparative 
weakness of mutual trust; skilled labour is lacking^ 
and although labour is plentiful, education is needed to 
inculcate a higher standard of living and so to secure a 
continuous supply; there is a dearth of technical institu- 
tions; there is also a want of practical information about 
the commercial potentialities of Indians war products. 
Though these are serious difficulties, they are not 
insuperable; but they will be overcome only if the 
State comes forward boldly as guide and helper. On 
the other hand, there are good grounds for hope. 
India has great natural resources, mineral and vege- 
table. She has furnished supplies of manganese, 
tungsten, mica, jute, copra, lac, etc., for use in the 
war. She has abundant coal, even if its geographical 
distribution is uneven; she has also in her large rivers 
ample means of creating water-power. There is good 
reason for believing that she will greatly increase her 
output of oil. Her forest wealth is immense, and 
much of it only awaits the introduction of modern 
means of transportation, a bolder investment of 
capital, and the employment of extra staff; while the 
patient and laborious work of conservation that has 
been steadily proceeding joined with modern scientific 
methods of improving supplies and increasing output, 
will yield a rich harvest in the future. We have been 
assured that Indi^iii capital will bq forthcoming once 



CLAIM TO FISCAL AUTONOMY I43 

it is realized that it can be invested with security and 
profit in India; a purpose that will be furthered by 
the provision of increased facilities for banking and 
credit. Labor, though abundant, is handicapped by 
still pursuing uneconomical methods, and its output 
would be greatly increased by the extended use of 
machinery. We have no doubt that there is an 
immense scope for the application of scientific methods. 
Conditions are ripe for the development of new and 
for the revival of old industries, and the real enthu- 
siasm for industries which is not confined to the ambi- 
tions of a few individuals but rests on the general 
desire to see Indian capital and labour applied jointly 
to the good of the country, seem to us the happiest 
augury." 

The views of educated India about fiscal policy have 
been very faithfully reproduced in Paragraphs 341 and 
342, which also we reproduce almost bodily: 

"Connected intimately with the matter of industries 
is the question of the Indian tariff. This subject was 
excluded from the deliberations of the Industrial Com- 
mission now sitting because it was not desirable at 
that juncture to raise any question of the modification 
of India's fiscal policy; but its exclusion was none the 
less the object of some legitimate criticism in India. 
The changes which we propose in the Government of 
India will still leave the settlement of India's tariff in 
the hands of a government amenable to Parliament 
and the Secretary of State; but inasmuch as the tariff 
reacts on many matters which will henceforth come 
more and more under Indian control, we think it well 
that we should put forward for the information of His 
Majesty's Government the views of educated Indians 
upon this subject. We have no immediate proposals 
to make; we are anxious merely that any decisions 
which may hereafter be taken should be taken with 
full appreciation of educated Indian opinion. 

''The theoretical free trader, we believe, hardly 



144 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

exists in India at present. As was shown by the 
debates in the Indian Legislative Council in March, 
1913, educated Indian opinion ardently desires a tariff. 
It rightly wishes to find another substantial basis than 
that of the land for Indian revenues, and it turns to a 
tariff to provide one. Desiring industries which will 
give him Indian-made clothes to wear and Indian- 
made articles to use, the educated Indian looks to the 
example of other countries which have relied on tariffs, 
and seizes on the admission of even free traders that 
for the nourishment of nascent industries a tariff is 
permissible. We do not know whether he pauses to 
reflect that these industries will be largely financed by 
foreign capital attracted by the tariff, although we 
have evidence that he has not learned to appreciate 
the advantages of foreign capital. But whatever 
economic fallacy underlies his reasoning, these are his 
firm beliefs; and though he may be willing to concede 
the possibility that he is wrong, he will not readily 
concede that it is our business to decide the matter 
for him. He believes that as long as we continue to 
decide for him we shall decide in the interests of Eng- 
land and not according to his wishes; and he points 
to the debate in the House of Commons on the differ- 
entiation of the cotton excise in support of his con- 
tention. So long as the people who refuse India 
protection are interested in manufactures with which 
India might compete, Indian opinion cannot bring 
itself to believe that the refusal is disinterested or 
dictated by care for the best interests of India. This 
real and keen desire for fiscal autonomy does not 
mean that educated opinion in India is unmindful of 
Imperial obligations. . . ." 

These admissions should put India's claims for 
fiscal autonomy beyond the range of doubt and dispute, 
but so strange are the ways of modern statesmanship 
that consistency and logic are not the necessary 
accompaniments thereof. 



CLAIM TO FISCAL AUTONOMY I45 

The authors have advanced another very strong 
argument for the economic development of India, viz., 
''miUtary value," which makes the case conclusive. 
This argument has been suppHed by the Great War 
and is so well known that we need not state it in their 
words. 

If India is to prosper and take her legitimate place 
in the British Commonwealth, and in the great family 
of Nations of the World, it is absolutely necessary that 
she should be given complete fiscal freedom to manage 
her own affairs, develop her own industries and do her 
own trading. Considering her size and resources, it 
wounds her self-respect and makes her feel exceedingly 
mean and small to go begging for alms and charity 
every time there is a failure of rains and the cry of 
famine is raised. 

For a nation of 315 millions of human beings living 
in a country which nature has endowed with all its 
choicest blessings, rich and fertile soil, plenty of water 
and sun, an abundant supply of metals and coal, 
willing labor, artistic skill and a power of manipulating 
for beauty and elegance unexcelled in the world — 
to exist in pitiful economic dependence is a condition 
most deplorable and most pathetic. We want no 
charity, no concessions, no favors, no preference. 
What we most earnestly beg and ask for is an oppor- 
tunity. 

For a synopsis of the findings and recommendations 
of the Industrial Commission mentioned in this chapter 
see appendix i. 



XII 
THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 

In December, 191 7, the Government of India 
appointed a committee of three Englishmen and two 
Indians (i) "to investigate and report on the nature 
and extent of the criminal conspiracies connected 
with the revolutionary movements in India, (2) to 
examine and consider the difficulties that have arisen 
in dealing with such conspiracies and to advise as to 
the legislation, if any, necessary to enable the govern- 
ment to deal effectively with them." Of the three 
English members, Mr. Justice Rowlatt of the King's 
Bench Division, England, was appointed as president, 
and of the other two, one was a judge in the service of 
the Government and the other a member of a Board 
of Revenue in one of the Indian Provinces. Of the 
two Indians, one was a judge and the other a practicing 
lawyer. 

This committee submitted its report in April, 191 8, 
which was published by the Government of India in 
July of the same year. The president, Mr. Justice 
Rowlatt's letter covering the report gives the nature 
of the evidence upon which their report is based, 
which is as follows: ''Statements have been placed 
before us with documentary evidence by the Govern- 
ments of Bengal, Bombay, Bihar and Orissa, the 
Central Provinces, the United Provinces, the Punjab 

146 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT I47 

and Burmah as well as by the Government of India. 
In every case, except that of Madras, we were further 
attended by officers of the government, presenting 
this statement, who gave evidence before us. In the 
two provinces in which we held sittings, namely, 
Bengal and Punjab, we further invited and secured 
the attendance of individuals, or as deputed by associa- 
tions, of gentlemen who we thought might give us 
information from various non-official points of view." 

It is clear from this statement that the investigation 
of the committee was neither judicial nor even semi- 
judicial; it was a purely administrative inquiry con- 
ducted behind the backs of the individuals concerned, 
without the latter having any opportunity of cross- 
examining the witnesses or giving their explanations 
of the evidence against them. While the different 
Governments in India were fully represented in each 
case by the ablest of their servants, the individuals 
investigated were not. We do not want to insinuate 
that either the Governments or the officers deputed 
by them were unfair in their evidence. All that we 
want to point out is that the other side had no oppor- 
tunity of putting their case before the committee. 
Consequently, it is no wonder that one comes across 
many traces of political and racial bias both in the 
introduction and the Report. 

The very first paragraph of the introduction betrays 
either ignorance on the part of the committee about 
the ancient history of India, or a deHberate misrepre- 
sentation of the nature of the Hindu State. The 
committee says: "RepubHcan or Parhamentary forms 
of governments as at present understood were neither 
desired nor known in Indig. until after the estabUsh- 



148' THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

ment of British rule. In the Hindu State the form of 
government was an absolute monarchy, though the 
monarch was by the Hindu Shastras hedged round by 
elaborate rules for securing the welfare of his subjects 
and was assisted by a body of councillors, the chief of 
whom were Brahmin members of the priestly class 
which derived authority from a time when the priests 
were the sole repositories of knowledge and therefore 
the natural instruments of administration." The 
statements made in this paragraph do not represent 
the whole truth. 

The committee ignores the fact that Republican 
or Parliamentary forms of Government "as at present 
under stood^^ were neither desired nor known in any 
part of the world, except perhaps England itself until 
after the establishment of British rule in India. ^ Then 
the committee has altogether ignored that, in the 
Hindu State, the form of government was not an 
absolute monarchy always and in all parts of India. 
There is ample historical evidence to prove that India 
had many Republican States, along with oligarchies 
and monarchies at one and the same period of her 
history. The second part of the second sentence is 
also not correct, because the priestly class derived its 
authority from a time when the priests were not the 
sole repositories of knowledge. The several Hindu 
political treatises belong to a period when the whole 
populace was highly educated and could take sub- 
stantial part in the determination of the affairs of their 
country. 

Equally misleading is the last sentence of the intro- 
duction where the committee says that it is among the 

^ The beginnings of British rule in India were made in 1757 a.d. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 149 

Chitpavan Brahmins of the Poona district that they 
first find indications of a revolutionary movement. 
This statement is incorrect, if it means that after the 
estabhshment of British rule in India no attempt had 
been made to overthrow it prior to the Revolutionary 
movement inaugurated by the Poona Brahmins. The 
statement ignores three such attempts which are 
known to history; viz., (a) the great Mutiny of 1857, 
(b) the Wahabee Rebellion of Bengal, and (c) the 
Kuka Rebellion of the Punjab; not to mention other 
minor attempts made in other places by other people. 

Yet we think that this report is a very valuable 
document, giving in one place the history and the 
progress of the Revolutionary Movement in India. 
The findings and the recommendations of the com- 
mittee may not be all correct, but the material collected 
and published for the first time is too valuable to be 
neglected by anyone who wants to have an intelligent 
grasp of the political situation in India, such as has 
developed within the last twenty years. 

The committee gives a summary of its conclusions 
as to the conspiracies in Chapter XV, which we copy 
verbatim: 

"In Bombay they have been purely Brahmin and 
mostly Chitpavan. In Bengal the conspirators have 
been young men belonging to the educated middle 
classes. Their propaganda has been elaborate, per- 
sistent and ingenious. In their own province it has 
produced a long series of murders and robberies. In 
Bihar and Orissa, the United Provinces, the Central 
Provinces and Madras, it took no root, but occasionally 
led to crime and disorder. In the Punjab the return 
of emigrants from America, bent on revolution and 
bloodshed, produced numerous outrages and the 



150 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

Ghadr conspiracy of 191 5. In Burma, too, the Ghadr 
movement was active, but was arrested. 

"Finally came a Mohammedan conspiracy confined 
to a small clique of fanatics and designed to overthrow 
British rule with foreign aid. 

"All these plots have been directed towards one 
and the same objective, the overthrow by force of 
British rule in India. Sometimes they have been 
isolated; sometimes they have been interconnected; 
sometimes they have been encouraged and supported 
by German influence. All have been successfully 
encountered with the support of Indian loyalty.'^ 

In this general summary the committee has made 
no attempt to trace out the causes that led to the 
inauguration of the revolutionary movement and its 
subsequent progress. A chapter on that subject would 
have been most illuminating. 

In chapters dealing with provinces they have selected 
some individuals and classes on whom to lay blame 
for "incitements" to murders and crimes, but have 
entirely failed to analyze the social, political and 
economic conditions which made such incitements and 
their success possible. 

It is clear even from this summary that the only 
two provinces where the revolutionary propaganda 
took root and resulted in more than occasional outrages 
were Bengal and the Punjab. 

In the Bombay Presidency, revolutionary outrages 
did not exceed three within a period of 20 years (from 
1897 to 1917), two murders and one bomb-throwing. 
Besides, three trials for conspiracies are mentioned all 
within a year (1909-19 10), two in Native States and 
one in British territory. Altogether 82 men were 
prosecuted for being involved in these conspiracies. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 1 51 

The total result comes to this, that in the course of 
20 years about loo persons were found to be involved 
in a revolutionary movement in a territory embracing 
an area of 186,923 square miles and a population of 
27 million human beings. This is surely by no means 
a formidable record justifying extraordinary legislation 
such as is proposed. ^ The net loss of human life did 
not exceed three, though unfortunately all three 
victims were Europeans. 

Bihar and Orissa formed part of the province of 
Bengal during most of the period covered by the 
revolutionary movement of Bengal, viz., from 1906 
to 191 7. It was in Bihar which was then a part of 
Bengal, that in 1908, the first bomb was thrown. 
The only other revolutionary outrage that took place 
in Bihar was one in 1913, resulting in the murder of 
two Indians. 

In the United Provinces of Agra and Oude, the 
only tangible evidence of revolutionary activity re- 
corded by the committee is the Benares Conspiracy 
that came to light in 1915-1916. The only outrage 
noted is that of the alleged murder of a fellow revolu- 
tionary by a member of the same gang. 

To the Central provinces the committee has given 
a practically clean bill. 

In Madras the revolutionary outrages consisted of 
one murder (of a European Magistrate) and one 
conspiracy involving nine persons. 

The cons acies and intrigues detected in Burma 
are ascribed to people of other provinces and not a 
single outrage from that province itself is reported. 

So we fi^nd that in the period from 1906 to 1907, 
1 Since enacted. 



152 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

both inclusive, outside the provinces of Bengal and 
the Punjab, the revolutionary crime was limited to 
three outrages and three conspiracies in the Bombay 
Presidency, one outrage in Bihar, one outrage and one 
conspiracy in the United Provinces, one outrage and 
one conspiracy in Madras and some intrigues and 
conspiracies during the war in Burma. Thus the 
only two provinces in which the revolutionary move- 
ment established itself to any appreciable extent was 
Bengal and the Punjab. 

In the Punjab, again, the first revolutionary crime 
took place in December, 191 2, and the second in 1913 
and the rest all during the War. Cases of seditious 
utterances and writings are not included in the term 
"revolutionary crime" used in the above paragraphs. 
It was from Bengal, then, that before the War revolu- 
tionary propaganda was carried on to any large extent, 
revolutionary movements organized and revolutionary 
crimes committed. About half of the Report deals 
with Bengal and the general findings of the committee 
may be thus summarized: 

(i) That the object of the movement was the 
overturning of 'Hhe British government in India by 
violent means" (p. 15 and also p. 19). 

(2) That the class among whom the movement 
spread was comprised of the Bhadralok (the respectable 
middle class). The committee says: 

"The people among whom he (i.e., Barendra, the 
first Bengali revolutionary propagandist) worked, the 
bhadralok of Bengal, have been for centuries peaceful 
and unwarlike, but, through the influence of the great 
central city of Calcutta, were early in appreciating 
the advantages of Western learning. They are mainly 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 1 53 

Hindus and their leading castes are Brahmins, Kay- 
asthas and Vaidyas; but with the spread of English 
education some other castes too have adopted bhadralok 
ideals and modes of life. Bhadralok abound in villages 
as well as in towns, and are thus more interwoven with 
the landed classes than are the literate Indians of other 
provinces. Wherever they live or settle, they earnestly 
desire and often provide English education for their 
sons. The consequence is that a number of Anglo- 
vernacular schools, largely maintained by private 
enterprise, have sprung up throughout the towns and 
villages of Bengal. No other province of India 
possesses a network of rural schools in which English 
is taught. These schools are due to the enterprise of 
the bhadralok and to the fact that, as British rule 
gradually spread from Bengal over Northern India, 
the scope of employment for English-educated Bengalis 
spread with it. Originally they predominated in all 
offices and higher grade schools throughout Upper 
India. They were also, with the Parsees, the first 
Indians to send their sons to England for education, 
to qualify for the Bar, or to compete for the higher 
grades of the Civil and Medical services. When, 
however, similar classes in other provinces also acquired 
a working knowledge of EngHsh, the field for Bengali 
enterprise gradually shrank. In their own province 
bhadralok still almost monopoHze the clerical and 
subordinate administrative services of Government. 
They are prominent in medicine, in teaching and at 
the Bar. But, in spite of these advantages, they have 
felt the shrinkage of foreign employment; and as the 
education which they receive is generally literary and 
ill-adapted to incline the youthful mind to industrial, 
commercial or agricultural pursuits, they have not 
succeeded in finding fresh outlets for their energies. 
Their hold on land, too, has weakened, owing to increas- 
ing pressure of population and excessive sub-infeudation. 
Altogether their economic prospects have narrowed, and 
the increasing numbers who draw fixed incomes have 
Jdt the pinch of rising prices. On the other hand, the 



154 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

memories and associations of their earlier prosperity^ 
combined with growing contact with Western ideas and 
standards of comfort, have raised their expectations of 
the pecuniary remuneration which should reward a labori- 
ous and, to their minds, a costly education. Thus as 
bhadralok learned in English have become more and 
more numerous, a growing number have become less 
and less inclined to accept the conditions of life in 
which they found themselves on reaching manhood. 
Bhadralok have always been prominent among the 
supporters of Indian political movements; and their 
leaders have watched with careful attention events in 
the world outside India. The large majority of the 
people of Bengal are not bhadralok but cultivators, 
and in the eastern districts mainly Muhammadans; 
but the cultivators of the province are absorbed in 
their own pursuits, in litigation, and in religious and 
caste observances. It was not to them but to his own 
class that Barendra appealed. When he renewed 
his efforts in 1904, the thoughts of many members of 
this class had been stirred by various powerful in- 
fluences." [The italics are ours.] 

We have given this lengthy extract as it shows con- 
clusively {a) that the movement originated and spread 
among people who had received Western education, 
most of the leaders having been educated in England 
and {b) that the root cause of the movement was 
economic. 

(3) That various circumstances occasioned by certain 
Government measures ''specially favored the develop- 
ment" of the movement (p. 16). Among the measures 
specially mentioned are {a) the University law of Lord 
Curzon ''which was interpreted by politicians as 
designed to limit the numbers of Indians educated in 
English and thus to retard national advance"; {b) the 
partition of Bengal by Lord Curzon. "It was the 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 155 

agitation that attended and followed on this measure 
that brought previous discontent to a climax." 

(4) That the revolutionary movement received a 
substantial impetus by the failure of constitutional 
agitation for the reversal of the policy that decided 
on partitioning Bengal into two divisions. This 
failure led to two different kinds of agitation, open 
and secret: (a) open economic defiance by Swadeshi 
and boycott — Swadeshi was the affirmative and 
boycott the negative form of the same movement. 
Swadeshi enjoined the use of country made articles; 
boycott was directed against English imports, (b) open 
propaganda by a more outspoken and in some instances 
violent press, (c) open control of educational agencies 
by means of national institutions, (d) open stimulus 
to physical education and physical culture, (e) nation- 
alistic interpretation of religious dogma and forms 
(open), (/) organization of secret societies for more 
violent propaganda, for learning and teaching the 
use of firearms, for the manufacture of bombs, for 
illicit purchase and stealing of firearms, for assassina- 
tion and murder, (g) secret attempts to tamper with 
the army, (h) conspiracies for terroristic purposes and 
for obtaining sinews of war by theft, robbery and 
extortion. 

The following two extracts which the committee 
has taken from one of the publications of the revolu- 
tionary party called Mukti Kon Pathe (what is the 
path of salvation) will explain clauses (/) and (g) and 
(h), 

"The book further points out that not much muscle 
was required to shoot Europeans, that arms could be 
procured by grim determination, and that weapons 



156 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

could be prepared silently in some secret place. In- 
dians could be sent to foreign countries to learn the 
art of making weapons. The assistance of Indian 
soldiers must be obtained. They must be made to 
understand the misery and wretchedness of the coun- 
try. The heroism of Sivaji must be remembered. 
As long as revolutionary work remained in its infancy, 
expenses could be met by subscriptions. But as work 
advanced, money must be extracted from society by 
the application of force. If the revolution is being 
brought about for the welfare of society, then it is 
perfectly just to collect money from society for that 
purpose. It is admitted that theft and dacoity are 
crimes because they violate the principle of good 
society. But the political dacoit is aiming at the good 
of society, *'so no sin but rather virtue attaches to the 
destruction of this small good for the sake of some 
higher good. Therefore if revolutionaries extort money 
from the miserly or luxurious members of society by 
the application of force, their conduct is perfectly 
just." 

Mukti Kon Pathe further exhorts its readers to 
obtain the "help of the native soldiers. . . . Although 
these soldiers for the sake of their stomach accept 
service in the Government of the ruling power, still 
they are nothing but men made of flesh and blood. 
They, too, know (how) to think; when therefore the 
revolutionaries explain to them the woes and miseries 
of the country, they, in proper time, swell the ranks 
of the revolutionaries with arms and weapons given 
them by the ruling power. . . . Because it is possible 
to persuade the soldiers in this way, the modern English 
Raj of India does not allow the cunning Bengalis to 
enter into the ranks of the army. . . . Aid in the shape 
of arms may be secretly obtained by securing the help 
of the foreign ruling powers." 

(5) That except in five cases the idea of private 
gain never entered into the activities of the revolu- 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 157 

tionaries and of the five persons referred to three were 
taxi-cab drivers either hired or coerced to cooperate 
in revolutionary enterprise (p. 20). 

(6) That ''the circumstances that robberies and 
murders are being committed by young men of respect- 
able extraction, students at schools and colleges, is 
indeed an amazing phenomenon the occurrence of 
which in most countries would be hardly credible." 

(7) That "since the year 1906 revolutionary outrages 
in Bengal have numbered 210 and attempts at com- 
mitting such outrages have amounted to loi. Definite 
information is in the hands of the police of the com- 
plicity of no less than 1038 persons in these offences. 
But of these, only 84 persons have been convicted of 
specified crimes in 39 prosecutions, and of these per- 
sons, 30 were tried by tribunals constituted under the 
Defence of India Act. Ten attempts have been made 
to strike at revolutionary conspiracies by means of 
prosecutions directed against groups or branches. In 
these prosecutions 192 persons were involved, 63 of 
whom were convicted. Eighty-two revolutionaries 
have rendered themselves liable to be bound over to be 
of good behaviour under the preventive sections of 
the Criminal Procedure Code. In regard to 51 of 
these, there is direct evidence of compHcity in outrages. 
There have, moreover, been 59 prosecutions under the 
Arms and Explosives Acts which have resulted in 
convictions of 58 persons." 

We wish the committee had also supplemented this 
information by a complete record of the punishments 
that were imposed on persons convicted of revolu- 
tionary crime in the ten years from 1906 to 191 7. 
We are sure such a statement would have been most 



158 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

informing and illuminating. It would have con- 
clusively established the soundness of the half-hearted 
finding that ''the convictions . . . did not have as 
much effect as might have been expected in repressing 
crime." In fact they had no effect. They only added 
fuel to the fire. 

(8) That persons involved in revolutionary crime 
belonged to all castes and occupations and the vast 
bulk of them were non-Brahmins. They were of all 
ages, from 10-15 to over 45, the majority being under 
25. The committee has in an appendix (p. 93) given 
three tables of statistics as to age, caste, occupation 
or profession of persons convicted in Bengal of revolu- 
tionary crimes or killed in commission of such crimes 
during the years 1907-1917. This clause is based on 
these statistics. 

We are afraid, however, that these statistics do not 
afford quite a correct index of the age, caste, occupa- 
tion and position of all the people in Bengal that were 
and are sympathetically interested in the revolutionary 
movement of Bengal. 

In investigating reasons for failure of ordinary 
machinery for the prevention, detection and punish- 
ment of crime in Bengal, the committee has assigned 
six reasons: (a) want of evidence, (b) paucity of 
police, (c) facilities enjoyed by criminals, (d) difficulty 
in proof of possession of arms, etc., (e) distrust of 
evidence, (/) the uselessness, in general, of confession 
made to the Police. These reasons, however, do 
not represent the whole truth. Some of the most 
daring crimes were committed in broad daylight, in 
much frequented streets of the metropolis and in the 
presence of numerous people, Moreover, the Govern- 



THE REVOLTTTIONARY MOVEMENT 159 

ment did not depend on ordinary law. Measure after 
measure was enacted to expedite and facilitate con- 
victions. Extraordinary provisions were made to 
meet all the difficulties pointed out by the committee 
and extraordinary sentences were given in the case of 
conviction. Yet the Government failed either to 
extirpate the movement or to check it effectively or to 
bring the majority of offenders to book. 

The members of the committee have frankly ad- 
mitted: ''That we do not expect very much from 
punitive measures. The conviction of offenders will 
never check such a movement as that which grew up 
in Bengal unless the leaders can be convicted at the 
outset." They pin their faith on ''preventive" 
measures recommended by them. It was perhaps not 
within their scope to say that the most effective pre- 
ventive measure was the removal of the political and 
economic causes that had generated the movement. 
The committee has studiously avoided discussing that 
important point, but now and then they have inci- 
dentally furnished the real clue to the situation. 
Discussing the "accessibiUty of Bengal schools and 
colleges to Revolutionary influences," they quote a 
passage from one of the reports of the Director of 
PubHc Instruction in Bengal. We copy below the 
whole of this paragraph, as, to us, it seems to be very 
pertinent to the issue. 

'* Accessibility of Bengal Schools and Colleges to 
Revolutionary Influences. — Abundant evidence has 
compelled us to the conclusion that the secondary 
English schools, and in a less degree the colleges, of 
Bengal have been regarded by the revolutionaries 
as their most fruitful recruiting centres. Dispersed 



l6o THE POLITICAL FTJTIIRE OF mDIA 

as these schools are far and wide throughout the 
Province, sometimes clustering in a town, sometimes 
isolated in the far-away villages of the eastern water- 
country, they form natural objects for attack; and as 
is apparent from the reports of the Department of 
Public Instruction, they have been attacked for years 
with no small degree of success. In these reports the 
Director has from time to time noticed such matters 
as the circulation of seditious leaflets, the number of 
students implicated in conspiracy cases and the apathy 
of parents and guardians. But perhaps his most 
instructive passages are the following, in which he sets 
out the whole situation in regard to secondary English 
schools. 'The number of these schools,' he wrote, 'is 
rapidly increasing, and the cry is for more and more. 
It is a demand for tickets in a lottery, the prizes of which 
are posts in Government service and employment in 
certain professions. The bhadralok have nothing to look 
to but these posts, while those who desire to rise from a 
lower social or economic station have their eyes on 
the same goal. The middle classes in Bengal are gen- 
erally poor, and the increased stress of competition and 
the tendency for the average earnings of certain careers to 
decrease — a tendency which is bound to follow on the 
increased demand to enter them, coupled with the rise 
in the cost of living and the inevitable raising in the 
standard of comfort — all these features continue to make 
the struggle to exist in these classes keener. Hence the 
need to raise educational standards, to make school 
life a greater influence for good and the course of 
instruction more thorough and more comprehensive. 
A need which becomes more and more imperative as 
life in India becomes more complicated and more 
exacting is confronted by a determined though perfectly 
natural opposition to the raising of fees. . . . Probably 
the worst feature of the situation is the low wages and the 
complete absence of prospects which are the fate of teachers 
in the secondary schools. ... It is easy to blame the 
parents for blindness to their sons' true good, but the 
matriculation examination is the thing that seems to 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT i6l 

matter, so that if his boy passes the annual promotion 
examinations and is duly presented at that examination 
at the earliest possible date, the average parent has no 
criticism to offer. This is perfectly natural, but the 
future of Bengal depends to a not inconsiderable extent 
on the work done in its secondary schools, and more 
is required of these institutions than an ability to pass 
a certain proportion of boys through the Calcutta 
University Matriculation examination. . . . The pres- 
ent condition of secondary schools is undoubtedly 
prejudicing the development of the presidency and is 
by no means a negligible feature in the existing state 
of general disturbance. It is customary to trace the 
genesis of much sedition and crime to the back streets 
and lanes of Calcutta and Dacca, where the organizers 
of anarchic conspiracies seek their agents from among 
University students. This view is correct as far as it 
goes, but it is in the high schools, with their underpaid 
and discontented teachers, their crowded, dark and 
ill-ventilated classrooms, and their soul-destroying 
process of unceasing cram, that the seeds of discontent 
and fanaticism are sown.'' [The italics are ours.] 

Yet for years nothing was done to improve educa- 
tion, to make it practical and creative and productive. 
In fact nothing has been done up till now. 

Let the reader read with this the report of the 
Indian Industrial Commission recently issued under 
the authority of the Government of India and he will 
at once find the true causes which underlie the revolu- 
tionary movement in India. These causes are not in 
any way peculiar to Bengal or to the Punjab; they are 
common to the whole of India, but they have found a 
fruitful soil in these provinces on account of the rather 
intense natures of the people of these two provinces. 
The Bengali is an intensely patriotic and emotional 
being, very sensitive and very resentful; the Punjabee 



l62 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

is intensely virile, passionate and plucky, having 
developed a strong, forceful character by centuries of 
resistance to all kind of invasions and attacks. Of the 
Punjab, however, we will speak later on. For the 
present we are concerned with Bengal only. The 
amazing phenomenon mentioned by the committee 
on p. 20 and referred to by us before is easily explained 
by the facts hinted in the Directors' report quoted 
above. And this notwithstanding the fact that in the 
matter of Government patronage Bengal has been the 
most favored province in India, throughout the period 
of British rule. To the Bengalis have gone all the first 
appointments to oflSices that were thrown open to the 
natives of the soil. They have been the recipients of 
the highest honors from the Government. Bengal is 
virtually the only province permanently settled where 
the Government cannot add to the Land tax fixed in 
1793. The Bengalis are the people who spread over 
India, with every territorial extension of the British 
Raj. They have been the pampered and favored 
children of the Government and for very good reasons, 
too. They are the best educated and the most in- 
telligent of all the Indian peoples. They know how 
to adapt themselves to all conditions and circumstances, 
they know how to enjoy and also how to suffer. They 
have subtle brains and supple bodies. The British 
Government could not do without them. It cannot 
do without them even now. Yet it was this most 
loyal and most dutiful, this most westernized and the 
best educated class which laid the foundations of the 
revolutionary movement and has been carrying it 
on successfully in face of all the forces of such a 
mighty Government as that of the British in India. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 1 65 

What is the reason? It is the utter economic helpless- 
ness of the younger generation, aided by a sense of 
extreme humiliation and degradation. The Govern- 
ment never earnestly appHed itself to the solution of 
the problem. They did nothing to reduce poverty 
and make education practical. Every time the 
budget was discussed the Indian members pressed for 
increased expenditure on education. All their pro- 
posals and motions were rejected by the standing 
official majorities backed by the whole force of non- 
official Europeans including the missionaries. The 
Government thus deliberately sowed the wind. Is 
there any wonder that it is now reaping the whirlwind? 
The cause is economic; the remedy must be economic. 
Make education practical, foster industries, open all 
Government careers to the sons of the soil, reduce the 
cost on the military and civil services, let the people 
determine the fiscal policy of the country and the 
revolutionary movement will subside. Die it will not, 
so long as there is foreign domination and foreign 
exploitation. Even after India has attained Home 
Rule it will not die. It has come to stay. India is 
a part of the world and revolution is in the air all 
the world over. The effort to kill it by repression 
and suppression is futile, unwise and stupid. 



XIII 
THE PUNJAB 

We may now consider the case of the Punjab. 
Lord Morley's verdict notwithstanding, it is abundantly 
clear that the troubles of 1907, with which the history 
of unrest in the Punjab begins, were principally 
agrarian in their origin. Lord Morley's speech in 
the House of Commons (in 1907) as to the root of the 
trouble was based on reports supplied to him by the 
Government of the Punjab and we know from personal 
knowledge how unreliable many of these reports are. 
We may here illustrate this point by a few extracts 
from these documents. 

(i) Lord Morley stated that: "There were twenty- 
eight meetings known to have been held by the leading 
agitators in the Punjab between ist March and ist 
May. Of these five only related, even ostensibly, 
to agricultural grievances; the remaining twenty- 
three were all purely political." 

The number of meetings held from March i to May 
I, 1907 was, at the lowest calculation, at least double 
of 28, or perhaps treble, and most of them related "even 
ostensibly to agricultural grievances"; the number of 
purely political meetings could not have exceeded ten 
or twelve. 

(2) On p. 6i the committee writes that "Chatarji's 

164 



THE PUNJAB 165 

father too had ordered him home on discovering that 
he was staying with Hardayal in the house of Lajpat 
Rai." The whole of this statement is absolutely false. 
I am prepared to swear and to prove that Chatarji did 
not stay in my house even for a single night. He 
came there a few times with Hardayal. Hardayal 
was at that time living in a house he had rented for 
himself in the native city about one mile from my 
place which is in the Civil Station on the Lower 
Mall. 

On the same page the committee has approvingly 
quoted a sentence from the judgment of the Sessions 
Judge in the Delhi Conspiracy Case. Speaking of 
Amir Chand, one of the accused in that case who was 
sentenced to death, the Sessions Judge describes him 
as "one who spent his life in furthering murderous 
schemes which he was too timid to carry out himself.'* 
Now I happen to have known this man for about 
20 years before his conviction. I have no doubt that 
he was rightly convicted in this case but I have no 
doubt also that this description of him by the Sessions 
Judge was absolutely wrong. Up till 19 10 the man 
had led an absolutely harmless life, helping students 
in their studies and otherwise rendering assistance, 
according to his means, to other needy people. No 
one ever credited him with violent views. His revolu- 
tionary career began in 1908. Before that he could 
not and would not have tolerated even the killing of 
an ant, much less that of human beings. 

In governments by bureaucracies one of the standing 
formulas of official etiquette is never to question the 
findings of facts arrived at by your superiors or prede- 
cessors. This naturally leads to the perpetuation of 



l66 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

mistakes. A wrong conclusion once accepted continues 
to be good for all times to come. The Rowlatt Com- 
mittee has studiously acted on that formula throughout 
its present inquiry. They have invariably accepted 
the findings of executive and judicial authorities 
preceding them about the incidents that happened 
since 1907, without making any independent inquiry 
of their own. Hence their opinion about the original 
or the principal cause of the unrest of 1907 in the 
Punjab is not entitled to greater weight than that of 
the Punjab officials whose mishandling of the affairs 
of the province produced the unrest. One ounce of 
fact, however, is of greater weight in the determination 
of issues than even a hundred theories. The fact that 
the Government of India had to veto the Punjab 
Government's Land Colonies Act in order to allay the 
unrest proves conclusively that the unrest was due to 
agrarian trouble. 

The unrest of 1907 subsided after the repeal of the 
land legislation of 1907, but the legacy it left is still 
operative. 

The Sikhs and the Mussulmans of the Punjab, as 
well as the military classes among the Hindus, the 
Rajputs and the Jats, are the most virile portions of 
the population. They have fought the battles of the 
Empire. In the interests of the Empire they have 
travelled far and wide. Yet we find that educationally, 
as well as economically, they have suffered most. 
They have the largest numbers of illiterates among 
them. They are the least developed and the least 
progressive of all the classes in the Punjab. They 
are heavily in debt. The Government has occasionally 
recognised it and has tried to satisfy them by pref- 



THE PUNJAB 167 

erential treatment in the filling of Government posts, 
or in the bestowal of titles or in nominating their 
supposed leaders to Legislative Councils. These ridicu- 
lous palliative measures, however, have failed in their 
objective. The classes disaffected do not get any 
satisfaction by these palliative measures. They need 
opportunities of education and economic betterment. 
These could not be provided without making education 
general and without a more equitable distribution of 
land among the agricultural classes and the inaugura- 
tion of industries other than agriculture. This the 
Government never cared to do. The Sikhs and the 
Mussulmans naturally directed their attention to 
emigration. 

The opportunities they found in other parts of the 
Empire whetted their appetites. They compared the 
conditions abroad with conditions at home and drew 
their own conclusions. Having helped in the expan- 
sion and development of the Empire they thought 
they were entitled to benefit therefrom. They de- 
manded fair treatment. Instead they found the doors 
shut upon them. Even those that had been admitted 
were made to feel the humiliation of their position. 
Deliberate, active, concerted measures were taken to 
drive them away or to make life for them intolerable. 
Their wives and children were refused admittance and 
various pretexts were invented to keep them out or to 
drive them away. The revolutionary movement in 
the Punjab amounted to nothing until it was rein- 
forced by the return of the Sikh members of the Ghadr 
party during the war. The Committee has failed to 
answer the question: Why did the Sikhs of Vancouver 
and California readily fall in with the schemes of 



1 68 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

Hardayal and Barkat Ullah, the alleged founders of 
the revolutionary party of California? These latter 
had nothing in common with the Sikhs. In language 
and religion, by habits and associations, they were 
poles apart from each other. Why did then Hardayal's 
propaganda find such a ready soil among the Sikhs of 
Vancouver B. C. We quote from the report: 

''The doctrines which he preached and circulated 
had reached the Sikhs and other Indians resident in 
British Columbia. At a meeting in Vancouver in 
December, 1913, a poem from the Ghadr newspaper 
was read, in which the Hindus were urged to expel the 
British from India. The main grievance of the Van- 
couver Indians was the Canadian immigration law 
under which every intending Asiatic immigrant, with 
a few particular exceptions, has to satisfy the Canadian 
authorities that he is in possession of 200 dollars and 
has travelled by a continuous ^ journey on a through 
ticket from his native country to Canada. In 1913 
three Sikh delegates visited the Punjab. They had 
come from America and were members of the Ghadr 
party who had come to reconnoitre the position. 
Their real purpose was recognised after their departure. 
They addressed meetings at various towns on the 
subject of the grievances of Indians in Canada and 
caused resolutions of protest to be passed in which all 
communities joined." 

Again, tracing the origin of the Budge-Budge riot, 
the Committee remarks: 

"The central figure in the narrative is a certain 
Gurdit Singh, a Sikh of the Amritsar district in the 
Punjab, who had emigrated from India 15 years before, 
and had for some time carried on business as a con- 

^There never was a continuous steamer service between India and 
Canada. 



THE PUNJAB 169 

tractor in Singapore and the Malay States. There is 
reason to believe that he returned to this country about 
1909. He was certainly absent from Singapore for a 
space; and when he returned there, going on to Hong 
Kong, he interested himself in chartering a ship for 
the conveyance of Punjabis to Canada. Punjabis, 
and especially Sikhs, frequently seek employment in 
the Far East, and have for some time been tempted 
by the higher wages procurable in Canada. But their 
admission to that country is to some extent impeded 
by the immigration laws which we have described 
already. 

There were already in Canada about 4,000 Indians, 
chiefly Punjabis. Some of these were revolutionists of 
the Hardayal school, some were loyal, and some had 
migrated from the United States on account of labour 
differences there. The Committee of Enquiry, which 
subsequently investigated the whole affair, considered 
that Gurdit Singh's action had been much influenced 
by advice and encouragement received from Indian 
residents in Canada. At any rate, after failing to 
secure a ship at Calcutta, he chartered a Japanese 
vessel named the Komagata Maru through a German 
agent at Hong Kong. He issued tickets and took in 
passengers at that post, at Shanghai, at Moji and at 
Yokohama. He certainly knew what the Canadian 
law was, but perhaps hoped to evade it by means of 
some appeal to the courts or by exercising political 
pressure. It is equally certain that many of his pas- 
sengers had no clear comprehension of their prospects. 
The Tribunal that subsequently tried the first batch 
of Lahore conspirators held that probably Gurdit 
Singh's main object was to cause an inflammatory 
episode, as one of the witnesses stated that Gurdit 
Singh told his followers that should they be refused 
admission, they would return to India to expel the 
British. On April the 4th, 1914, the Komagata 
Maru sailed from Hong Kong. On the 23rd of May 
the Komagata Maru arrived at Vancouver with 351 
Sikhs and 21 Punjabi Muhammadans on board. The 



I70 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

local authorities refused to allow landing except in a 
very few cases, as the immigrants had not complied 
with the requirements of the law. Protests were 
made, and, while negotiations were proceeding, a 
balance of 22,000 dollars still due for the hire of the 
ship was paid by Vancouver Indians, and the charter 
was transferred to two prominent malcontents. . . . 
A body of police was sent to enforce the orders of the 
Canadian Government that the vessel should leave; 
but with the assistance of firearms, the police were 
beaten off, and it was only when a Government vessel 
was requisitioned with armed force that the Komagata 
Maru passengers, who had prevented their Captain 
from weighing anchor or getting up steam, were 
brought to terms. On the 23rd of July they started 
on their return journey with an ample stock of pro- 
visions allowed them by the Canadian Government. 
They were by this time in a very had temper as many had 
staked all their possessions on this venture, a7td had 
started in the full belief that the British Government would 
assure and guarantee their admission to a land of plenty. 
This temper had been greatly aggravated by direct 
revolutionary influences. . . . 

''During the return voyage the War broke out. 
On hearing at Yokohama that his ship's comipany 
would not be allowed to land at Hong Kong, Gurdit 
Singh replied that they were perfectly willing to go to 
any port in India if provisions were supplied. The 
British Consul at Yokohama declined to meet his 
demands, which were exorbitant; but the consul at 
Kobe was more compliant, and after telegraphic com- 
munication between Japan and India, the Komagata 
Maru started for Calcutta. At neither Hong Kong 
nor Singapore were the passengers allowed to land. 
This added to their annoyance, as, according to the 
findings of the Committee, many had not wished to 
return to India at all." 

The Committee found that most of the passengers 
were disposed to blame the Government of India for 
all their misfortunes. ''It is weU known," states the 



THE PUNJAB 



171 



Report, "that the average Indian makes no distinction 
between the Government of the United Kingdom, 
that of Canada, and that of British India, or that of 
any colony. To him these authorities are all one and 
the same. And this view of the whole Komagata Maru 
business was by no means confined to the passengers 
on the ship. It inspired some Sikhs of the Punjab 
with the idea that the Government was biased against 
them; and it strengthened the hands of the Ghadr 
revolutionaries who were urging Sikhs abroad to return 
to India and join the mutiny which, they asserted, 
was about to begin. Numbers of emigrants listened 
to such calls and hastened back to India from Canada, 
the United States, the Philippines, Hong Kong and 
China." [The italics are ours.] 



We have given this extract to show the real cause of 
the growth of the revolutionary movement among the 
Sikhs. Let the reader omit, if he can, for a moment, 
all references to active revolutionary propaganda and 
he will find that the underlying cause of this trouble 
was economic. Why did the Sikhs want to emigrate 
to Canada? Why did they stake all their possessions 
on the venture? Why were they unwilling to return 
to India at all? Because the economic conditions at 
home were so bad and the prospects abroad so good. 
At home their lands were not sufficient to absorb all 
their energies, the income was not sufficient to keep 
body and soul together and, in a majority of cases, 
what they made from land was hardly more than 
sufficient to pay Land Revenue to the Government 
and interest to the money-lender. There was nothing 
to bind them to their homes except the love of home 
land and the domestic ties. These melted away in 
the presence of dire necessity. In extreme need they 



172 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

left their homes to make more money to be able to 
pay their debts, to redeem their lands, if possible to 
purchase more land and to make life bearable and 
tolerable. When they came in the open world they 
found insurmountable barriers between them and 
plenty. They had helped in making the empire; 
the empire had enough land for all her sons and daugh- 
ters; men were urgently needed to bring land into 
cultivation and otherwise to develop the empire; men 
of other races and colours were not only welcome but 
were being induced to come and settle by offers of all 
kinds. They, and they alone, were unwelcome and 
barred. 

Add to this the attitude and the record of the Punjab 
Government towards political agitation and political 
agitators, to use their own favorite expressions. The 
Punjab Government was the first to resuscitate the 
old Regulation III of 1818 for the purpose of scotching 
a legitimate agitation against an obnoxious legislative 
measure. A wise and sagacious Government would 
have dropped the legislation which it was eventually 
found necessary to veto to maintain peace. The 
deportations drove the seeds of unrest deeper. The 
other contributory causes may be thus summed up: 

(i) The Punjab Government has been the most 
relentless of all local governments in India in suppress- 
ing freedom of speech and press. 

(2) The Punjab Government at one time was very 
foolishly zealous in persecuting the Arya Samajists and 
in making a mountain out of a molehill about the 
letters found in the possession of Parmanand. 

(3) The sentences which the Punjab Courts have 
passed in cases of seditious libel are marked by such 



THE PUNJAB ' 173 

brutality as to make them notably unique in the 
history of criminal administration in India. 

(4) The strangulation of all open poHtical Hfe by 
direct and indirect repression led to the adoption of 
secret methods. 

(5) The sentences passed in the Delhi Conspiracy 
case were much more severe than those given in Bengal 
in similar cases. In this case four men were hanged, 
two of them only because of membership in the secret 
conspiracy and not for actual participation in the 
outrage that was the subject of the charge, and two 
others were sentenced to seven years rigorous imprison- 
ment each. 

(6) The Budge-Budge riot and the considerable loss 
of life that resulted therefrom was another case of 
stupid management and utter incapacity to handle a 
delicate situation. 

(7) For the Lahore Conspiracy 28 persons were 
hanged, and about 90 sentenced to long terms of 
imprisonment and transportation for life. But for 
the interference of Lord Hardinge the hangings would 
have exceeded 50. In addition some mutinous soldiers 
of two regiments were tried by Court Martial and a 
few murderous robbers and train-wreckers were dealt 
with by the ordinary courts. The reader may well 
compare this with the record of convictions relating 
to Bengal. 

Now, we have not the slightest intention of justifying 
the conduct of those who conspired to overthrow the 
Government by force, or who committed murders, 
robberies or other offences in the furtherance of that 
design. In our judgment only madmen, ignorant of 
the conditions of their country^ could have been guilty 



174 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

of such crimes. Nor are we inclined to blame the 
Government much for the sharp steps they took to 
preserve order and maintain their authority during 
the war . But, after all has been said, we must reiterate 
that the underlying causes were economic and were 
the direct result of Government policy. 



XIV 

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR REPRESSIVE 
LEGISLATION 

The Committee has said all that it could against 
individual publicists, Indian public movements and 
the native press. They have found no fault with the 
Anglo-Indian press and the Government. The whole 
force of their judicial acumen has been applied in 
recommending fresh measures of repression and 
suppression which they have divided into two kinds: 

Punitive Measures, Permanent, (a) Points of Gen- 
eral Application. The measures which we shall sub- 
mit are of two kinds, viz., Punitive, by which term 
we mean measures better to secure the conviction and 
punishment of offenders, and Preventive, i.e., measures 
to check the spread of conspiracy and the commission 
of crime. 

We may say at once that we do not expect very 
much from punitive measures.^ The conviction of 
offenders will never check such a movement as that 
which grew up in Bengal unless all the leaders can be 

1 The Government of India have been on the inclined plane of 
repression as a remedy of discontent, which sometimes leads to 
crime, for now more than twenty years. They have in the interval 
placed on the Statute Book the Penal and Criminal Procedure Codes, 
the Post Office Amendment Acts, the Ofl&cial Secrets Act, the 
Seditious Meetings Act, the Incitement to Offences Act, the Criminal 
Law Amendment Act, the Press Act, the Conspiracy Act, and the 
Defence of India Act. Have they attained their object? The very 
introduction of the two new Bills ... is the eloquent answer. 
What is it but a confession of failure? . . . Leader, Allahabad. 

I7S 



176 TEE POLITICAL PtTTTIRE OF INDIA 

convicted at the outset. Further, the real difficulties 
have been the scarcity of evidence due to various 
causes and the want of reliance whether justified or 
not, on such evidence as there has been. The last 
difficulty is fundamental and cannot be remedied. 
No law can direct a court to be convinced when it is 
not. 

Punitive Measures (Permanent). 
Legislation directed better to secure the punishment 
of seditious crime may take the shape either — 

(a) of changes in the general law of evidence or 

procedure which if sound would be advisable 
in regard to all crime, or 

(b) changes in the substantive law of sedition or 

modifications in the rules of evidence and 
procedure in such cases designed to deal with 
the special features of that class of offence. 

The recommendation under (a) does not amount 
to much and we will not mention it. 
Under (b) they recommend: 

In the first place we think that a permanent enact- 
ment on the lines of Rule 25 A under the Defence of 
India Act is required. That rule provides for the 
punishment of persons having prohibited documents 
(which may have to be defined anew) in their posses- 
sion or control with (as we read the effect of the words 
used) intent to publish or circulate them. . , . 

We also recommend that the principle of section 565 
of the Code of Criminal Procedure (which provides 
for an order requiring notification of residence after 
release in the case of persons convicted a second time 
for certain offences) should be extended to all persons 
convicted of offences under Chapter VI of the Penal 
Code (offences against the State) whether previously 
convicted or not. Such persons might be ordered to 
give security for a period not exceeding two years for 
good behaviour so far as offences under Chapter VI 



REPRESSIVE LEGISLATION I77 

are concerned, and in default be directed to notify 
their residence to Government, who should have power 
to restrict their movements for the period of two years 
after their release and prohibit them from addressing 
public meetings, — the term "public meetings" includ- 
ing in its scope political subjects as in section 4 of the 
Prevention of Seditious Meetings Act of 1907. 

Lastly, we think that in all cases where there is a 
question of seditious intent, evidence of previous 
conviction for seditious crime or association (of an 
incriminating kind, of course) with persons so con- 
victed should be admissible upon written notice to the 
accused with such particulars and at such a time 
before the evidence is given as might be fair. What 
we have called seditious crime would of course have 
to be accurately defined. 

Now it is evident that after such legislation all liberty 
of speech and action becomes extinct. These recom- 
mendations will we fear directly lead to secret propa- 
ganda and secret action. 

Under the head of emergency punitive measures the 
committee recommends: 

Emergency Provisions for Trials. Coming now to 
the measures themselves, we are of opinion that 
provision should be made for the trial of seditious 
crime by Benches of three Judges without juries or 
assessors and without preliminary commitment pro- 
ceedings or appeal. In short, the procedure ^ we 
recommend should follow the lines laid down in sections 
5-9 inclusive of the Defence of India Act. It should 
be made clear that section 512 of the Code of Criminal 
Procedure (relating to the giving in evidence^ under 
certain circumstances of depositions taken in the 
absence of an absconding accused) applies to these 
trials, it having, we understand, been questioned 
whether section 7 of the Defence of India Act has that 
effect. 



178 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OE INDIA 

We think it necessary to exclude juries and assessors 
mainly because of the terrorism to which they are 
liable. But terrorism apart, we do not think that 
they can be relied upon in this class of cases. They 
are too much inclined to be affected by public discus- 
sion. 

We omit the detailed discussion of these provisions 
in which the committee has attempted to soften the 
sting of these recommendations by giving their reasons 
and by suggesting certain safeguards against their 
abuse. The most startling of their recommendations 
are however made under the head of emergency 
preventive measures. 

Emergency Preventive Measures. We have been 
forced to the conclusion that it is necessary, in order 
to keep the conspiracies already described under 
control in the future, to provide for the continuance 
after the expiry of the Defence of India Act (though in 
the contingent form explained and under important 
limitations) of some of the powers which that measure 
introduced in a temporary form. By those means 
alone has the conspiracy been paralysed for the present 
and we are unable to devise any expedient operating 
according to strict judicial forms which can be relied 
upon to prevent its reviving to check it if it does 
revive, or, in the last resort, to suppress it anew. This 
will involve some infringement of the rules normally 
safeguarding the liberty of the subject. We have 
endeavored to make that infringement as small as we 
think possible consistently with the production of an 
effective scheme. 

Existing Temporary Powers. The powers at present 
temporarily possessed by the Government are so far 
as material for the present purpose to be found in 
rules 3-7 inclusive and 12A under the Defence of 
India Act, 191 5. We do not refer for the present to 



REPRESSIVE LEGISLATION I7g 

the Foreigners Ordinance, 1914, or the Ingress into 
India Ordinance, 1914. . . . Shortly stated, their 
effect is to give power to require persons by executive 
order to remain in any area to be specified or not to 
enter or remain in any such area, with penalties for 
breach of such requirements. These orders may be 
made and served on the person affected, whereupon 
they become binding upon him, or the person may be 
arrested without warrant and detained for a period 
not exceeding in all one month, pending an order of 
restriction. There is also a power of search under 
search warrant. It will be observed there is no pro- 
vision for an examination of the cases of such persons. 
The decision lies solely with the Local Government. 
There is also the power of confinement under Regula- 
tion III of 1818. 



Again: 

''Two Grades of Powers Desirable. — We now 
proceed to elaborate . . . the scheme we suggest. 

"We think, as we have already indicated, that the 
powers to be acquired should be of two grades capable 
of being called into operation separately, possibly 
under different forms of notification. 

" The first group of powers should be of the following 
nature: — 

" (i) to demand security with or without sureties; 

" (ii) to restrict residence or to require notification of 
change of residence; 

" (iii) to require abstention from certain acts, such as 
engaging in journalism, distributing leaflets 
or attending meetings; 

" (iv) to require that the person should periodically 
report to the police. 

''The second group of powers should be — 

"(i) to arrest; 

"(ii) to search under warrant; 

" (iii) to confine in non-penal custody. 



l8o THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

"In Article 196 they provide "that in respect of 
acts committed before the Defence of India Act expires 
(or an earlier date if preferred) and danger apprehended 
by reason of such acts in the future it should be lawful 
to proceed against any person under any of the pro- 
visions which we have outlined without any notifica- 
tion. In other words, the new law is to be deemed to 
be operative for that purpose immediately." 

Articles 198 and 199 suggest measures for restricting 
"Ingress into India" and also for regulating and 
restricting "Inter-Provincial Movements." 

Need it be said that if these recommendations are 
accepted there will be no liberty of press or speech in 
India and the Reform will fail to suppress the revolu- 
tionary movement at all. Indian opinion is unanimous 
in condemning these recommendations as has been 
proved by the unanimous opposition of all sections of 
Indians in the Viceroy's Legislative Council to the 
bills that have been introduced to give effect to them. 



XV 
THE REVOLUTIONARY PARTY 

Revolution is a fever brought about by 
the constant and reckless disregard of the 
laws of health in the government of a 
country. 

David Lloyd George 

"Causes and Aims of the War." Speech 
delivered at Glasgow, on being presented 
with the freedom of that city, June 29, 
1917. 

The authors of the report remark: 

''There exists a small revolutionary party deluded 
by hatred of British rule and desire for the elimination 
of the Englishman into the belief that the path to 
independence or constitutional liberty lies through 
anarchical crime. Now it may be that such persons 
will see for themselves the wisdom of abandoning 
methods which are as futile as criminal; though if 
they do not, the powers of the law are or can be made 
sufficient for the maintenance of order. But the 
existence of such people is a warning against the 
possible consequences of unrestrained agitation in 
India. We are justified in calling on the political 
leaders, in the work of education that they will under- 
take, to bear carefully in mind the political inexperience 
of their hearers; and to look for further progress not 
to fiery agitation which may have consequences quite 
beyond their grasp, but to the machinery which we 

i8i 



l82 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDLA 

devise for the purpose. In every country there will 
be persons who love agitation for agitation's sake or 
to whom it appeals like an intoxicant. It is the duty 
of the leaders of Indian opinion to remember the effect 
on people not accustomed to weighing words of fiery 
and heated speeches. Where ignorance is wide- 
spread and passions are so easily aroused, nothing is 
easier than for political leaders to excite a storm; 
nothing harder for them than to allay it. Breaches of 
the peace or crimes of violence only put back the 
political clock. Above all things, when the future of 
India depends upon co-operation among all races, 
attacks upon one race or religion or upon another 
jeopardise the whole experiment. Nor can the con- 
demnation of extremist and revolutionary action be 
left only to the official classes. We call upon all those 
who claim to be leaders to condemn with us and to 
support us in dealing with methods of agitation which 
drive schoolboys to crime and lead to religious and 
agrarian disturbance. Now that His Majesty's Govern- 
ment have declared their policy, reasonable men 
have something which they can oppose successfully to 
the excitement created by attacks on Government and 
by abuse of Englishmen, coupled with glowing and 
inaccurate accounts of India's golden past and appeals 
to race hatred in the name of religion. Many promi- 
nent Indians dislike and fear such methods. A new 
opportunity is now being offered to combat them; 
and we expect them to take it. Disorder must be 
prejudicial to the cause of progress and especially 
disorder as a political weapon." 

We are in general agreement with the sentiments 
expressed in this extract but we will be wanting in 
candour if we fail to point out that, though the revolu- 
tionary movement in India is mainly political, it is 
partly economic and partly anarchic also. In the 
first two aspects it is at present the product of purely 



THE REVOLUTIONARY PARTY 1 83 

local (Indian) conditions. In the last, it is the reaction 
of world forces. While we are hoping that the change 
in the poHcy, now announced, will remove the pohtical 
basis of it, we are not quite sure that that will ensure 
the extermination of the party or the total destruction 
of the movement. The growth of democratic political 
institutions in India must inevitably be followed by a 
movement for social democracy. The spirit of Revolu- 
tion which is now fed by political inequalities will, 
when these are removed, find its sustenance in 
social inequalities. That movement may not be anti- 
British; perhaps it will not be, but that it will have 
some revolutionary element in it may be assumed. 
The lessons of history make it clear that the most 
effective way to prevent its falling into channels of 
violence is to have as little recourse to coercion as 
may be consistent with the preservation of general 
order and peace. The preservation of order and the 
unhindered exercise of private rights by all citizens is 
the pre-requisite condition to good government. 
Every government must see to it. It is their duty to 
use preventive as well as punitive methods. There 
are, however, ways of doing these things. One is the 
British, the American and the French way.^ The 
other is what was heretofore associated with the name 
of the late Czar. The third is the German way. We 
hope the lessons of Czarism will not be lost on either 
party. The governments have as much to learn from 
it as the peoples. The best guarantee against the 
abnormal growth of a revolutionary movement is to 
adopt and follow the British methods and to avoid 

1 By this we do not mean those that were adopted during the 
war. 



184 THE POLITICAL rUTIIRE OF INDIA 

scrupulously and without fail any approach to the 
discredited Russian or Prussian methods. 

The Indian soil and the Indian atmosphere are not 
very congenial for revolutionary ideas and revolu- 
tionary methods. The people are too docile, gentle, 
law-abiding and spiritually inclined to take to them 
readily. They are by nature and tradition neither 
vindictive nor revengeful. Their general spirit is 
opposed to all kinds of violence. They have little 
faith in the virtues of force. Unless they are provoked, 
and that too terribly, and are face to face with serious 
danger they do not like the use of force, even when 
recourse to it may be legal and morally defensible. 

One of the causes of the growth of the revolutionary 
movement in India has been the insolence and the 
incivility of the European Community towards the 
Indian Community. The charges of cowardice so 
often hurled against the Bengali have played no 
insignificant part in the genesis of the Bengal revolu- 
tionary. The distinguished authors have put it 
rather mildly: 

^'If there are Indians who really desire to see India 
leave the empire, to get rid of English ofiicers and 
English commerce, we believe that among their springs 
of action will be found the bitterness of feeling that 
has been nurtured out of some manifestation that 
the Englishman does not think the Indian an equal. 
Very small seeds casually thrown may result in great 
harvests of political calamity. We feel that, particu- 
larly at the present stage of India's progress, it is 
the plain duty of every Englishman and woman, ofl&- 
cial and non-ofiicial, in India to avoid the offence 
and the blunder of discourtesy: and none the less is it 
incumbent on the educated Indian to cultivate patience 



THE REVOLUTIONARY PARTY 185 

and a more generous view of what may very likely be 
no more than heedlessness or difference of custom." 

We admire the dignified way in which they have 
addressed their advice to the educated Indian. But 
we hope they do not ignore that except in a few 
scattered instances heretofore the chief fault has lain 
with the ruling class. The proceedings of the Royal 
Commission on the Public Services of India are full of 
that racial swagger which the authors of this report 
have mildly condemned in the above extract and it is 
an open secret that that spirit was one of the dearly 
cherished articles of faith with the bureaucracy. We 
hope the war has effected a great change in their 
temper and both parties will be disposed to profit 
from the advice given to them in the report. 

As to the duty of the educated leaders in the matter 
of suppressing the growth of the revolutionary move- 
ment in future, we beg to point out that all depends on 
how much faith the governing classes place in the 
professions of the popular leaders. Open public 
speeches and meetings appealing to racial or religious 
animosities have not played any important part in 
the development of the revolutionary spirit. It is 
not likely that the educated leaders will in any way 
consciously and voluntarily digress from the limits of 
reasonable criticism of Government policy, nor have 
they very often done so in the past. What has so 
far prevented the educated leaders from exercising an 
effective check on the growth of the revolutionary 
movement is their inability to associate on terms of 
friendship with the younger generation. This has 
been due partly to a false idea of dignity and partly 
to the fear that any association with hot-headed young 



1 86 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

men might bring discredit on them or might land 
them in hot water if, sometime or other, any one of 
their friends might do anything violent. Public 
speeches denouncing the revolutionary propaganda 
and the revolutionary activities or public condemnation 
of the latter in the press are good in their own way, 
but they are not quite effective. The revolutionist 
may ascribe it to fear, timidity, or hypocrisy. What 
is needed is that educated leaders of influence should 
be free to mix, socially and otherwise, with the younger 
generation so as to acquire an intimate knowledge of 
their trend of thought and bent of mind. It is in 
these intimate exchanges of views that the}^ can most 
effectively exercise their powers of argument and 
persuasion and use their influence effectively. They 
will not succeed always, but in a good many cases they 
will. This cannot be done, however, unless the 
Executives and the Police relax their attentions toward 
them. 

The bureaucrats' want of confidence in any Indian 
leader reached its limit in the attentions which the 
agents of the secret service bestowed on such men as 
the late Mr. Gokhale. It is an open secret that the 
secret service records have assigned a particular 
number to every public leader in India. Religious 
preachers and teachers of the type of Lala Hansraj 
and Lala Munshi Ram receive as much attention in 
the records as the writer of this book or Mr. B. G. 
Tilak or Mr. Bepin Chandra Pal. The "Servants of 
India" are as much the objects of solicitation on the 
part of the secret service men as the members of the 
Arya Samaj. Of course, agitators are agitators. All 
the great progressive souls of the world have had to 



i 



THE REVOLUTIONARY PARTY 1 87 

agitate at one time or another in their lives. Agitation 
is the soul of democracy. There can be no progress 
in a democracy without agitation. Sir Denzil Ibbetson 
could pay no greater compliment to the Arya Samaj 
than by his remark in 1907 that, according to his 
information, wherever there was an Arya Samaj it 
was a centre of unrest. We hope the Governments 
are now convinced that the Arya Samaj has never been 
revolutionary. It is one of the most conservative, 
restraining forces in the social Hfe of the country. 
Yet it cannot be denied that its propaganda has been 
and will continue to be one of the most disturbing 
factors in the placid waters of Indian life. The 
bureaucracy could not look upon it with kindness. 
Any attempt to persist in this kind of control or check 
or persecution will be fatal to the success of the appeal 
which Mr. Montagu and Lord Chelmsford have 
addressed to the public men of India in the extract 
given above. 

In our judgment the most effective way to check 
the growth of the revolutionary movement is by 
freeing the mind of the leaders of the fear of being 
misunderstood if they should mix freely with the 
younger generation and yet fail to prevent some of 
them from becoming revolutionists. A revolutionary 
prospers on exclusiveness. Secrecy is his great ally. 
Cut off a young man from open, healthy influences and 
he will be attracted by the mystery of secrecy. Thence- 
forth he is doomed. After that he may be weaned 
only by kindness and friendliness and not by threats 
or persecution. Most of the youths attracted by 
revolutionary propaganda have proved to be quite 
ignorant of the real conditions of their country. No 



1 88 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

attempt has been made to instruct them in politics. 
They have been fed on unsound history and unsound 
poHtics. Reactionary Imperiahsm has harmed them 
more than exaggerated nationaHsm. They have had 
few opportunities of discussion with people who could 
look upon things in right perspective. They could 
not open their minds to their European teachers. 
In the few cases in which they did they repented. 
Somehow or other, the free confidential talks they had 
with their professors found an entry in the police 
records. It brought a black mark against their 
names, to stand and mar their careers forever. The 
Indian teacher and professor is afraid of discussing 
politics with them. So they go on unrestrained until 
the glamour of prospective heroism, by a deed of 
violence, fascinates one of them and he is led into 
paths of crimes of a most detestable kind. Unscrupu- 
lous advisors lead him toward falsehood, hypocrisy, 
treachery, treason and crime by dubious methods. 
One of the things they preach is that morality has 
nothing to do with politics. They insinuate that the 
violence of militarism and Imperialism can be effec- 
tively met and checked only by violence. Poor 
misguided souls! They enforce their advice by the 
diplomatic history of Europe. They forget that once 
a youth is led into the ways of falsehood and unscrupu- 
lousness he may as easily use it against his friends as 
against his enemies. If he has no scruples about killing 
an enemy he may have none about killing a friend. 
If he has no scruples about betraying the one, he may 
have none about betraying the other. Once a man 
starts toward moral degeneration, even for desirable 
or patriotic ends, there is no knowing whither his 



THE REVOLUTIONARY PARTY 1 89 

course might take him. The most idealistic young 
men starting with the highest and purest conceptions 
of patriotism have been known to fall into the most 
ignoble methods of attacking first their enemies and 
then their friends. When they reach that stage of 
moral corruption they can trust no one, can believe in 
the honesty of no one. Their one idea of cleverness 
and efficiency is to conceal their motives from every- 
one, to give their confidence to no one, to suspect and 
distrust everyone and to aspire toward the success 
that consists in imposing upon all. 

The remedy against this lies in encouraging an open 
and frank discussion of politics on the part of the 
younger generation, with such indulgences as are due to 
their youth and immaturity of judgment; a systematic 
teaching of political history in schools and colleges; 
a free and open intercourse with their teachers on the 
clearest understanding that nothing said in discussion 
or in confidence will ever be used either privately or 
publicly against them, and an equally free and intimate 
intercourse with the leaders of thought and of public 
life in the country. These latter must be freed from 
the attentions of the secret service if it is intended that 
they should effectually cooperate in counteracting 
revolutionary propaganda. Besides, the younger gen- 
eration must be brought up in habits of manly and 
open encounter with their adversaries, in a spirit of 
sport and fair play. Repression, suppression, and 
suspicion do not provide a congenial climate for the 
development of these habits and they should be 
subordinated as much as possible in the present condi- 
tion of chaotic conflict between social interests and 
social ideals. 



XVI 
EDUCATION 

In the previous chapters we have embodied and 
discussed the important parts of the Report of Mr. 
Montagu and Lord Chelmsford. In this chapter we 
give a summary of what they say about education. 
The statements of fact made by the two distinguished 
statesmen are so lucid and fair that we make no apology 
for copying the whole article embodying the same. 

''There is, however, one aspect of the general problem 
of political advance which is so important as to require 
notice in some detail. We have observed already that 
one of the greatest obstacles to India's political develop- 
ment lies not only in the lack of education among its 
peoples taken as a whole, but also in the uneven 
distribution of educational advance. The educational 
policy of Government has incurred much criticism 
from different points of view. Government is charged 
with neglect, because after sixty years of educational 
effort only 6 per cent, of the population is literate, 
while under 4 per cent, of the total population is 
undergoing instruction. It is charged, on the other 
hand, with having given to those classes which wel- 
comed instruction a system which is divorced from their 
needs in being purely literary, in admitting methods of 
unintelligent memorising and of cramming, and in 
producing, far in excess of the actual demands of 
Indian conditions, a body of educated young men 
whose training has prepared them only for Govern- 
ment service or the practice of law. The system of 

190 



EDtrCATION igi 

university education on Western lines is represented 
as cutting off the students from the normal life of the 
country, and the want of connection between primary 
education in the vernaculars and higher education 
in English is regarded as another radical defect." 

The period of sixty years mentioned is evidently 
counted from 1858, the year in which the rule of the 
East India Company ceased and the Crown assumed 
direct responsibility for the Government of India. 
British rule in India however began in 1757 a.d. and 
the foundation of public education in India under 
the British might well be considered to have been laid 
by Warren Hastings in 1781, in which year the Cal- 
cutta Madrassa was established. For a period of 
almost 50 years the discussion whether the Indians 
should be instructed in English or not went on until 
it was settled in 1835 by Lord Macaulay's famous 
minute in favour of English and the European system. 
In 1824 there were 14 public institutions in Bengal 
imparting education on Western lines. 

In the same year, i.e., in 1824, Monstuart Elphin- 
stone formulated a similar policy for the Bombay 
presidency. 

To the remarks made in the above quotation about 
the extent and kind of education imparted in India 
till now, the distinguished authors of the report add: 

''From the economic point of view India had been 
handicapped by the want of professional and technical 
instruction: her colleges turn out numbers of young 
men qualified for Government clerkships while the real 
interests of the country require, for example, doctors 
and engineers in excess of the existing supply.^ The 
charge that Government has produced a large intelli- 
gentsia which cannot find employment has much 



192 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

substance in it: it is one of the facts that lie at the 
root of recent political difficulties. But it is only of 
late years and as part of the remarkable awakening 
of national self-consciousness, that the complaint has 
been heard that the system has failed to train Indians 
for practical work in manufactures, commerce, and 
the application of science to industrial life." 

After making a few general observations on the 
so called difficulties in the way of a general spread of 
education "the chief needs at present" are thus 
pointed out: 

*' Primary education, as we have seen, is already 
practically in the hands of local bodies, but secondary 
education was deliberately left at the outset almost 
entirely to private agencies. The universities, despite 
their connection with Government, are largely non- 
official bodies with extensive powers. ^ The main 
defect of the system is probably the want of co-ordina- 
tion between primary and higher education, which in 
turn reacts upon the efficiency of the secondary institu- 
tions and to a great extent confines university colleges 
to the unsatisfactory function of mere finishing schools. 
The universities have suffered from having been 
allowed to drift into the position of institutions that 
are expected not so much to educate in the true sense 
as to provide the student with the means of entering 
an official or a professional career. Thus a high 
percentage of failures seems to a large body of Indian 
opinion not so much a proof of the faultiness of the 
methods of teaching as an example of an almost capri- 
cious refusal of the means of obtaining a living wage to 
boys who have worked for years often at the cost 
of real hardship to secure an independent livelihood. 
The educational wastage is everywhere excessive; 

1 We do not accept this statement. The Government controls 
the policy of the universities to such an extent as virtually to make 
them ofdcial institutions. 



EDUCATION 



193 



and analysis shows that it is largely due to under- 
payment and want of proper training in the case of 
teachers. The actual recruits for normal schools are 
too often ill-prepared, and the teaching career, which 
in India used formerly to command respect, does not 
now offer adequate inducements to men of abihty and 
force of character. The first need, therefore, is the 
improvement of teaching. Until that is attained it is 
vain to expect that the continuation of studies from 
the primary stage can be made attractive. But while 
the improvement of primary and middle schools is the 
first step to be taken, very much remains to be done 
in reorganising the secondary teachers and ensuring 
for the schoolmaster a career that will satisfy an 
intelligent man. The improvement of ordinary second- 
ary education is obviously a necessary condition for 
the development of technical instruction and the 
reform of the university system. It is clear that 
there is much scope for an efficient and highly trained 
inspectorate in stimulating the work of the secondary 
schools and in helping the inspectorate of the primary 
schools maintained by the local bodies. We believe 
that the best minds in India, while they feel that the 
educational service has not in the past been widely 
enough opened to Indians trained at British univer- 
sities, value the maintenance of a close connection with 
educationists from the United Kingdom. 

''This survey of educational problems will show how 
much room there is for advance and improvement, 
and also how real the difficulties are. The defects of 
the present system have often been discussed in the 
legislative councils, but, as was inevitable so long as 
the councils had no responsibility, without due appre- 
ciation of financial difficulties, or serious consideration 
of the question how far fresh taxation for educational 
improvement would be acceptable. As we shall show, 
it is part of the political advance that we contemplate 
that the direction of Indian education should be 
increasingly transferred to Indian hands. Only so, 
we believe, can the stimulus be forthcoming which will 



194 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

enable the necessary money to be found. The weak 
points are recognised. A real desire for improvement 
exists. Educational extension and reform must in- 
evitably play an important part in the political progress 
of the country. We have already made clear our 
conviction that political capacity can come only 
through the exercise of political responsibility; and 
that mere education without opportunities must 
result in serious mischief. But there is another 
important element. Progress must depend on the 
growth of electorates and the intelligent exercise of 
their powers; and men will be immensely helped to 
become competent electors by acquiring such education 
as will enable them to judge candidates for their votes, 
and of the business done in the councils. No one 
would propose to prescribe an educational qualification 
for the vote; but no one can deny the practical diffi- 
culties which make a very general extension of the 
franchise impossible, until literacy is far more widely 
spread than is the case at present Progress was 
temporarily interrupted by uncertainty as to the 
distribution of financial resources which would result 
from the constitutional changes; but the imminence 
of these has given a new importance to the question 
and its consideration has been resumed. We trust 
that impetus will thus be given to a widespread move- 
ment which will be taken up and carried forward boldly 
by the reformed councils." 

The subject has been so fairly dealt with, the defects 
of the present system so frankly recognised and the 
need of wider dissemination of education so forcibly 
explained that we need add nothing. 

In our judgment the circumstances and conditions 
under which it is proposed to transfer the direction of 
Indian education to Indian hands are extremely 
unfair. It is admitted that under the present economic 
conditions of the Indian people, there is little scope 



EDUCATION igt^ 

for further taxation. If so, there are only two ways 
to find money for education, (a) by economy in the 
other departments of public administration, (b) by 
loans. 

The recommendation made by the Secretary of 
State and the Viceroy for an increase in the emolu- 
ments of the European services hardly leaves any 
room for (a). We have discussed the matter at some 
length in another chapter. The only other source 
left, then, is by incurring debt. Education is so 
important and so fundamental to the future progress 
of the country that in our judgment the ministers 
should feel no hesitation in having recourse to it, but 
the problem is so gigantic that, lacking material 
reduction in the cost of administration in other depart- 
ments, it will be extremely difficult to meet the situation 
without an unreasonable increase in the public debt. 
Anyway, under the scheme recommended, the Govern- 
ment cannot divest itself of the fullest responsibility 
in the matter. The scheme gives no vital power to the 
electorates or their representatives. The authority of 
the Executive in the matter of appropriations remains 
unaffected and so long as it retains the final say in 
the making of the Budget, the Indian ministers cannot, 
handicapped by so many restrictions, be held responsi- 
ble if the progress is slow. 

Our views on the problem of education in India 
have been expressed in a separate book to which 
interested readers are referred.^ We hold that it is 
the duty of the Government to provide free and 
wholesome education to every child at public cost, 
that education should be compulsory up to the age 
2 National Education in India. 



196 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

of 18. The policy of the English Education Act of 
1918 ought to be applied to India, and if it cannot be 
done from current funds, loans should be raised for the 
purpose. It is a matter which brooks of no delay. 
The whole future of India depends upon it. Nay, 
the future of humanity as a whole is affected by it. 
The world cannot be safe for any kind of democracy, 
nor can the world make progress towards a better 
order without the active cooperation of three hundred 
and fifteen million Indians forming one-fifth of the 
human race. Not only is the world poorer by reason 
of India's inability to cooperate in the work of pro- 
gress but its present educational backwardness is a 
serious handicap to the rest of humanity going 
forward. 



xvn 

THE PROBLEM 

We have so far discussed the Report and such re- 
marks as we have made have been by way of comment. 
In this chapter we propose to give in brief outHne our 
own view of the problem. 

Let us first be clear about the exact nature of the 
Indian problem. Political institutions are, after all, 
only a reflection of the national mind and of national 
conditions. What is the end? The end is freedom 
to live and to live according to our own conception of 
what life should be, to pursue our own ideals, to 
develop our own civilization and to secure that unity 
of purpose which would distinguish us from the other 
nations of the world, insuring for us a position of 
independence and honor, of security from within and 
non-interference from without. We have no ambition 
to conquer and rule other peoples; we have no desire 
to exploit foreign markets; not even to impose our 
" kultur " and our " civilization " on others. At present 
we are counted among the backward peoples of the 
earth mainly because we are a subject people, governed 
by a foreign power, protected by foreign bayonets 
and schooled by foreign teachers. The condition of 
our masses is intellectually deplorable and economically 
miserable; our women are still in bondage and do not 
enjoy that freedom which their Western sisters have 

197 



1 98 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

won; our domestic masters, the prince and priest, are 
still in saddle; caste and privilege still hold some sway, 
yet it is not true that, taken all in all, we are really a 
backward people. Even in these matters we find 
that the difference between us and the "advanced'' 
nations of the world is one of degree only. Caste and 
privilege rule in the United States as much as in India. 
There is nothing in our history which can be put on the 
same level as the lynching of Mr. Little, the deporta- 
tion of Bisbee miners, the lynching of the Negroes, and 
other incidents of a similar nature indicative of race 
hatred and deep rooted colour prejudice. No nation 
in the world can claim an ideal state of society, in which 
everything is of the best. On the other hand, there 
are certain matters in which comparison is to our 
advantage. Even with the advance of drunkenness 
under British rule we are yet a sober nation; our 
standards of personal and domestic hygiene are much 
higher than those of the Western people; our standards 
of life much simpler and nobler; our social ideals 
more humane; and our spiritual aspirations infinitely 
superior. As a nation we do not believe in war or 
militarism or evangelism. We do not force our views 
on others; we have greater toleration for other people's 
opinions and beliefs than has any other nation in the 
world; we have not yet acquired that craze for posses- 
sions and for sheer luxurious and riotous life which 
marks the modern Pharisee of the West. Our people, 
according to their conceptions, means and oppor- 
tunities are kindly, hospitable, gentle, law-abiding, 
mutually helpful, full of respect for others, and peace 
loving. It is, in fact, the abnormal extent in which 
these qualities exist that has contributed to our political 



THE PROBLEM Iqq 

and economic exploitation by others. In India 
capitalism and landlordism have not yet developed as 
fully as they have among the civilized nations of the 
West. The West is in revolt against capitalism and 
landlordism. We do not claim that before the advent 
of the British there was no capitalism or landlordism 
in India. But we do contend that, though there was 
a certain amount of rivalry and competition between 
the diflferent castes, within the castes there was much 
more co5peration and fellow-feeling than there has 
ever been in the West. Our native governments and 
their underlings, the landlords, did exact a high price 
from the village communities for the privilege of 
cultivating their lands but within the village there 
was no inter se competition either between the tillers 
of the soil or between the pursuers of crafts. The 
gulf between the rich and the poor was not so marked 
as it is to-day in the West. 

Under the British rule and since its introduction, 
however, things have changed considerably. Without 
adopting the best features of modern life, we have been 
forced by circumstances, political and economic, to 
give up the best of our own. Village communities 
have been destroyed; joint and corporate bargaining 
has given place to individual transactions; every bit 
of land has been separately measured, marked and 
taxed; common lands have been divided; the price of 
land and rent has risen abnormally. The money- 
lender who, before the advent of British rule, held 
an extremely subordinate position in the village 
community, has suddenly come to occupy the first 
place. He owns the best lands and the best houses 
and holds the bodies and souls of the agricultur- 



200 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

alists in mortgage. The villages which were gen- 
erally homogeneous in population, bound to each 
other by ties of race, blood and religion, have become 
heterogeneous, with nondescript people of all races 
and all religions who have acquired land by pur- 
chase. Competition has taken the place of cooper- 
ation. A country where social cooperation and 
social solidarity reigned at least within castes, within 
villages and within urban areas has been entirely 
disrupted and disintegrated by unlimited and uncon- 
trolled competition. India never knew any poor 
laws; she never needed any; nor orphan asylums, 
nor old age pensions and widow homes. She had no 
use for organized charity. Rarely did any man die 
for want of food or clothing, except in famines. Hos- 
pitality was open and was dispensed under a sense of 
duty and obligation and not by way of charity or 
kindness. The survival of the fittest had no hold on 
our minds. We had no factories or workshops. People 
worked in their own homes or shops either with their 
own money or with money borrowed from the money- 
lender. The artisans were the masters of the goods 
they produced and, unless otherwise agreed with the 
money-lender, sold them in the open market. The 
necessities of life, being cheap and easily procurable 
the artisans cared more for quality than quantity. 
Their work was a source of pleasure and pride as well 
as of profit to them. Now everything has gone, 
pleasure, pride, as well as profit. Where profit has 
remained, pleasure and pride are gone. We are on 
the high road to a "distinctly industrial civilization." 
In fact, the principal complaint of our political re- 
formers and free trade economists is that the British 



THE PROBLEM 20I 

Government has not let us proceed on that road at a 
sufficiently rapid pace and that, in preventing us, 
they have been dominated by their own national 
interests more than by our own good. We saw that 
other nations were progressing by following the laws 
of industrial development, and quite naturally we also 
wanted to prosper by the same method. This war 
has opened our eyes as it has opened those of the rest 
of the world and we have begun to feel that the goal 
that we sought leads to perdition and not salvation. 
This makes it necessary for the Indian politicians and 
economists to review their ideas of political progress. 
What are we aiming at? Do we want to rise, in order 
to fall? Do we want to copy and emulate Europe 
even in its mistakes and blunders? Does the road to 
heaven lie through hell? Must we make a wreck of 
our ship and then try salvage? The civilization of 
Europe, as we have known it, is dying. It may take 
decades or perhaps a century or more to die. But 
die it must. This War has prepared a death bed for 
it from which it will never rise. Upon its ruins is 
rising, or will rise, another civilization which will 
reproduce much of what was valuable and precious in 
our own with much of what we never had. The 
question that we want to put to our compatriots is, 
shall we prepare ourselves for the coming era, or shall 
we bury ourselves in the debris of the expiring one. 
We have no right to answer it for others, but our 
answer is clear and unequivocal. We will not be a 
party to any scheme which shall add to the powers of 
the capitahst and the landlord and will introduce and 
accentuate the evils of the expiring industrial civiliza- 
tion into our beloved country. 



202 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

We are not unaware that, according to the judgment 
of some thinkers, amongst them Karl Marx, a country 
must pass through the capitalistic mill, before the 
proletariat comes to its own. We do not believe in 
the truth of this theory, but even if it be true we will 
not consciously help in proving it to be true. The 
existing social order of Europe is vicious and immoral. 
It is worm eaten. It has the germs of plague, disease, 
death and destitution in it. It is in a state of decom- 
position. It is based on injustice, tyranny, oppression 
and class rule. Certain phases of it are inherent in 
our own system. Certain others we are borrowing 
from our masters in order to make a complete mess. 
Wisdom and foresight require that we be forewarned. 
What we want and what we need is not the power to 
implant in full force and in full vigour the expiring 
European system, but power to keep out its develop- 
ment on vicious lines, with opportunities of gradually 
and slowly undoing the evil that has already been 
done. 

The Government of India as at present constituted 
is a Government of capitalists and landlords, of both 
England and India. Under the proposed scheme the 
power of the former will be reduced and that of the 
latter increased. The Indo-British Association does 
not like it, not because it loves the masses of India 
for which it hypocritically and insincerely professes 
solicitude, but because in their judgment it reduces 
the profits of the British governing classes. We doubt 
if the scheme really does affect even that. But if it 
does, it is good so far. 

The ugly feature of the scheme is not its potentiality 
in transferring the power into the hands of the Brah- 



THE PROBLEM 203 

mins (the power of the Brahmin as such, is gone for 
good), but in the possibiUty of its giving too much 
power to the "profiteering" class, be they the land- 
lords of Bengal and Oudh, or the miUionaires of Bombay. 
The scheme protects the European merchants; it 
confers special privileges on the small European Com- 
munity; it provides special representation for the 
landlords, the Chambers of Commerce, the Moham- 
medans and the Sikhs. What is left for the general 
tax-paying public is precious little. The authors of 
the scheme say that to withhold complete and im- 
mediate Home Rule is in the interest of the general 
masses, the poor inarticulate ryot and the workingman. 
We wish we could believe in it. We wish it were true. 
Perhaps they mean it, but our past experience does 
not justify our accepting it at its face value. 

There is, however, one thing we can do. We can 
ask them for proofs by insisting on and agitating for 
the immediate legislative relief of the ryot and the 
middle classes. We should adopt the aims of the 
British Labour Party as our own, start educating our 
people on those lines and formulate measures which 
will secure for them real freedom and not the counterfeit 
coin which passes for it. It will require years of 
education and agitation but it has to be done, no 
matter whether we are ruled by the British or by our 
own property holders. We are not opposed to Home 
Rule. Nay, we press for it. In our judgment the 
objections urged against giving it at once are flimsy 
and intangible. The chief obstacles are such as have 
been created or perpetuated by the British themselves. 
The caste does not prevent us from having at least 
as much home rule as is enjoyed by the people of 



204 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

Italy, Hungary, the Balkan States and some of the 
South American Republics. But if we cannot have 
it at once and if the British must retain the power 
of final decision in their hands, we must insist upon 
something being immediately done not only to educate 
the ryot but to give him economic relief. So long as 
the British continue to refuse to do that we must 
hold them responsible for all the misery that Indian 
humanity is suffering from. 

We want political power in order to raise the in- 
tellectual and political status of our masses. We do 
not want to bolster up classes. Our goal is real liberty, 
equality and opportunity for all. We want to avoid, 
if possible, the evils of the class struggle. We will 
pass through the mill if we must, but we should like to 
try to avoid it. For that reason we want freedom to 
legislate and freedom to determine our fiscal arrange- 
ments. That is our main purpose in our demand 
for Home Rule. 



XVIII 
THE INTERNATIONAL ASPECT 

Thus far we have discussed the Indian question 
from the internal or national point of view. But it 
has an international aspect also. It is said, and we 
hope that it is true, that the world is entering into an 
era of new internationalism and that the old exclusive 
chauvinistic nationalism is in its last gasps. This 
war was the greatest social mix-up known to history. 
It has brought about the downfall of many monarchs 
and the destruction of four empires. The armies of 
the belligerents on both sides contained the greatest 
assortment of races and nations, of religions and 
languages that were ever brought together for mutual 
destruction. Primarily a fight between the European 
Christians, it drew into its arena Hindus, Mohamme- 
dans, Buddhists, Shintos, Jews and Negroes of Africa 
and America. 

The war has produced a revolution in Russia, the 
like of which has never been known. It is now said 
openly that the Russian Revolution had as much 
influence on the final debacle of the Central Powers as 
the strength of the Allies and the resources of America. 
The revolution has spread to Germany and Austria 
and threatens to engulf the whole of Europe. It has 
given birth to a new order of society, aglow with the 
spirit of a new and elevated kind of internationalism. 

205 



2o6 THE POLITICAL FUTURE OF INDIA 

This internationalism must have for its foundation 
justice and self-determination for all peoples, regardless 
of race or religion, creed or color. In the new under- 
standing between nations cooperation must be sub- 
stituted for competition and mutual trust and helpful- 
ness for distrust and exploitation of the weaker by the 
stronger. The only alternatives are reaction, with the 
certainty of even greater war in the near future, and 
Bolshevism. 

Now, nobody knows what Bolshevism represents. 
The Socialists themselves are divided over it. The 
advanced wing is enthusiastic, the moderates are 
denouncing it. The Liberals and Radicals are freely 
recognizing that it has brought into the affairs of men 
a new spirit which is going to stay and substantially 
influence the future of the world. The stand-patters 
denounce it in the strongest possible terms. They 
calumniate it to their heart's content and move heaven 
and earth to exterminate it. But we feel that only 
radical changes in the existing order will stem its tide. 
The Socialists and Radicals want to make the most 
of it, while the Imperialist Liberals and Conservatives 
want to give as little as is compatible with the safety 
of the existing order in which they are supreme. The 
struggle will take some time, but that it will end in 
favor of the new spirit no one doubts. 

The only way to meet Bolshevism is to concede 
rights to the different peoples of the earth now 
being bled and exploited. Otherwise the discontented 
and exploited countries of the world will be the best 
breeding centres for it. India must come into her 
own soon, else not even the Himalayas can effectually 
bar the entry of Bolshevism into Indi^. A contented, 



THE INTERNATIONAL ASPECT 207 

self-governing India may be proof against it; a discon- 
tented, dissatisfied, oppressed India perhaps the most 
fertile field. We hope the British statesmen are alive 
to the situation. 

But that is not the only way to look at the inter- 
national importance of India. By its geographical 
situation it is the connecting link between the Near 
East and the Far East and the clearing house for the 
trade of the world. Racially, it holds the balance 
between the European Aryan and the yellow races. 
In any military conflict between the white and the 
yellow races, the people of India will be a decisive 
factor. In a conflict of peace they will be a harmonising 
element. Racially they are the kin of the European. 
By religion and culture they are nearer the Chinese 
and Japanese. 

With 70 million Moslems India is the most important 
centre of Mohammedan sentiment. With Christians 
as their present rulers, the Hindus and Mohammedans 
of India are coming to realise that their best interests 
require a closing up of their ranks. There is no doubt 
that, come what may, their relations in future will be 
much more cordial, friendly and mutually sympathetic 
than they have been in the past. The Hindus will 
stand by their Mohammedan countrymen in all their 
efforts to revive the glory of Islam, and to regain 
political independence for it. There is no fear of a 
Pan-Islamic movement if the new spirit of interna- 
tionalism prevails. If, however, it does not, the 
Pan-Islamic movement might find a sympathetic 
soul in India. Islam is not dead. It cannot and will 
not die. The only way to make it a force for harmony 
and peace is to recognise its potentialities and to 



2o8 THE POLITICAL FUTtTRE OF INDIA 

respect its susceptibilities. The political independence 
of Islamic countries is the basic foundation for such 
a state. We hope that the statesmen of the world 
will give their most earnest thought to the question 
and sincerely put into practice the principles they 
have been eViunciating during the war. The case of 
India will be an acid test. 

A happy India will make a valuable contribution to 
the evolution of a better and more improved humanity. 
An unhappy India will clog the wheels of progress. 
It will not be easy for the masters of India to rule it 
on old lines. If not reconciled it might prove the 
pivot of the next war. A happy India will be one of 
the brightest spots in the British Commonwealth. 
A discontented India will be a cause of standing shame 
and a source of never ending trouble. 

With a republican China in the northeast, a con- 
stitutional Persia in the northwest and a Bolshevist 
Russia in the not remote north, it will be extremely 
foolish to attempt to rule India despotically. Not 
even the gods can do it. It is not possible even if the 
legislature devotes all its sittings to the drafting and 
passing of one hundred coercion acts. The peace of 
the world, international harmony and good-will, the 
good name of the British Commonwealth, the safety 
of the Empire as such, demand the peaceful introduc- 
tion and development of democracy in India. 



APPENDIX A 

A SYNOPSIS OF THE INDIAN INDUSTRIAL 
COMMISSIONERS' REPORT 

A bureaucracy has the fatal tendency of perpetuating 
itself and of making itself indispensable. As a result, 
we find that the prospects and powers of the bu- 
reaucracy become more important than even the 
purposes for which it exists. It is a commonplace of 
politics that a state exists for the people comprising 
it, and that the servants of the state are the servants 
of the people. They are the tools which the body 
politic uses for its corporate life. Even in self-governed 
countries the tendency of glorifying the state and the 
servants of the state at the cost of the people is not 
uncommon, though the fact is not, or rarely, if at 
all, admitted in so many words. In dependencies 
and countries governed by a foreign bureaucracy, 
however, this fact is undisguisedly kept before the 
people and they are openly and frankly told that the 
powers and prospects of the servants of the govern- 
ment are of greater consequence and importance than 
the wishes and welfare of the people. This is amply 
illustrated by the extravagant scale on which the 
government of India pays its European servants and 
goes on adding to their privileges under all sorts of 
pretences and excuses. People may live or they 
may die for want of food, for lack of knowledge of the 
ordinary laws of hj^giene, for lack of employment, 
but the bureaucrats must enjoy their princely salaries, 
their hill allowances, their furlough, and traveUing 
and leave perquisites, promotions and pensions. 
If the cost of living increases, they must get a raise 
in their salaries, no matter how the increased cost of 

209 



210 APPENDIX 

living affects the general body of the people. Besides, 
they must have their pensions, as their children are 
infinitely more important than those of the tax-payer. 

We have already reproduced and discussed the 
recommendations of the Secretary of State for India 
and the Viceroy, about the European members of the 
Indian services. The Viceroy has only recently 
emphasized the importance of a substantial increase 
in their salaries, although there is a deficit of 20 miUion 
dollars in the budget estimates for the next year. 
That is an old story, however. What we are imme- 
diately concerned with are the recommendations of 
the Indian Industrial Commission, in favor of creating 
a new branch of public service divided into the in- 
evitable Imperial and Provincial branches, for further- 
ing the industrial development of the country. Our 
meaning will be clear as we proceed. 

The Indian Industrial Commission was appointed 
by the Government of India "to examine and report 
upon the possibilities of further industrial develop- 
ment in India and to submit its recommendations 
with special references to the following questions: — 

(a) whether new openings for the profitable 
employment of Indian capital in commerce 
can be indicated. 

(b) whether, and if so, in what manner, govern- 
ment can usefully give direct encouragement 
to industrial development, 

1. by rendering technical advice more 
freely available; 

2. by the demonstration of the possibility, 
on a commercial scale, of particular 
industries ; 

3. by affording, directly, or indirectly, 
financial assistance to industrial enter- 
prise; or 

4. by any other means which are not incom- 
patible with the existing fiscal policy of 
the government of India, 



APPENDIX 211 

The tariff question was excluded from the scope of 
the Commission's inquiries, though it was expressed 
that the ''building up of industries where the capital, 
control and management should be in the hands of 
the Indians" was the ''special object'' which the 
government had in view. The Government spokesman 
in the meeting of the Legislative Council at which the 
appointment of the Commission was announced 
further emphasized "that it was of immense import- 
ance, alike to India herself and to the Empire as a 
whole, that Indians should take a larger share in the 
industrial development of their country." He "dep- 
recated the taking of any steps, if it might merely 
mean that the manufacturer who now competes with 
you from a distance would transfer his activities to 
India and compete with you within your boundaries." 

The Commission has now submitted its report 
which has been published as a Parliamentary blue 
book in a bulky volume of about 500 pages including 
a separate lengthy note by one of the leading Indian 
members of the Commission. The note is, in our 
judgment, very valuable, as it gives the Indian point 
of view of the industrial problem in such a lucid and 
exhaustive way as to leave no room for doubt as to 
what articulate India thinks in the matter. The 
note does not express only the personal opinion of 
the author but the considered views of the Indian 
Nationalist Party. 

Both the report and the note have been the source 
of much personal gratification to us as they corroborate 
and confirm to an extraordinary extent what the author 
said in his book "England's Debt to India," though 
the report is by no means free from fallacies and one- 
sided statements of fact and opinions. 

II 

In the words of the summary prefixed to the report: 

"The first chapters of the report deal with India 

as an mdustrial couiit^y, her present position, and 



212 APPENDIX 

her potentialities. They show how Httle the march 
of modern industry has affected the great bulk of the 
Indian population, which remains engrossed in agri- 
culture, winning a bare subsistence from the soil by 
antiquated methods of cultivation. Such changes 
as have been wrought in rural areas are the effects of 
economic rather than of industrial evolution. In 
certain centers the progress of Western industrial 
methods is discernible; and a number of these are 
described in order to present a picture of the con- 
ditions under which industries are carried on, attention 
being drawn to the shortage and to the general in- 
efficiency of Indian labor and to the lack of an in- 
digenous supervising agency. Proposals are made 
for the better exploitation of the forests and fisheries. 
In discussing the industrial deficiencies of India, the 
report shows how unequal the industrial development 
of our industries has been. Money has been invested 
in commerce rather than industries, and only those 
industries have been taken up which appeared to offer 
safe and easy profits. Previous to the war, too ready 
reliance was placed on imports from overseas, and this 
habit was fostered by the Government practice of 
purchasing stores in England. India produces nearly 
all the raw materials necessary for the requirements of 
a modern community; but is unable to manufacture 
many of the articles and materials necessary alike 
in times of peace and war. For instance, her great 
textile industries are dependent upon supplies of 
imported machinery and would have to shut down if 
command of the seas were lost. It is vital, therefore, 
for the Government to ensure the establishment of 
those industries in India whose absence exposes us to 
grave danger in event of war. The report advocates 
the introduction of modern methods of agriculture and 
in particular of labor-saving devices. Greater effi- 
ciency in cultivation, and in the preparation of produce 
for the market would follow; labor now wastefully 
employed would be set free for industries and the 
establishment of shops foi the manufacture and repair 



APPENDIX 



213 



of machinery would lead to the growth of a huge 
engineering industry." 

The summarized statements will be made more 
clear by the following extracts from Chapter I on rural 
India. 

"Famine connotes not so much a scarcity or entire 
absence of food as high prices and a lack of employ- 
ment in the affected areas, . . . The capital in the 
hands of the country traders has proved insufficient 
to finance the ordinary movements of crops and the 
seasonal calls for accommodations from the main 
financial centers are constantly increasing. This lack 
of available capital is one cause of the high rates that 
the ryot has to pay for the ready money which he needs 
to buy seed and to meet the expenses of cultivation. 
On the other hand, money is largely invested in the 
purchase of landed property, the price of which has 
risen to very high figures in many parts of the country. 
. . . But the no less urgent necessity of relieving the 
ryot from the enormous load of debt with which he 
has been burdened by the dearness of agricultural 
capital, the necessity of meeting periodic demands for 
rent and his social habits, has hitherto been met only 
to a very small extent by co-operative organization. 
"The farmer, owing partly to poverty and partly 
to the extreme sub-division of the land, is very often 
a producer on so small a scale that it is practically 
impossible for him to take his crops to the larger 
markets where he can sell at current rates to the 
agents of the bigger firms. ... A better market 
system, co-operative selling, and education are the 
promising remedies." 

Coming to the industrial centers of the country 
apart from the rural areas, the report says: 

"A characteristic feature of organised industry 
and commerce in all the chief Indian centers is the 
presence of large agency firms which, except in^ the 
case of Bombay, are mainly European. In addition 
to participating in the export and import trade, they 
finance and manage industrial ventures all over the 



214 APPENDIX 

country, and often have several branches in the large 
towns. The importance of these agency houses may 
be gauged by the fact that they are in control of the 
majority of the cotton, jute and other mills as well as 
of the tea gardens and the coal mines." 

The general remarks about the industrial deficiency 
of the country will be better understood from the 
following extracts: 

''We have already referred to the dependence of 
India on outside sources of sulphur and the necessity 
for insisting on the local smelting of her sulphide ores. 
In the absence of any means for producing from purely 
Indian sources sulphuric, nitric, and hydrochloric 
acids, and alkalis, our manufactures, actual or pros- 
pective, of paper, drugs, matches, oils, explosives, 
disinfectants, dyes and textiles are dependent upon 
imports which under war conditions, might be cut 
off. Sources of raw materials for heavy chemicals are 
deficient. The output of saltpeter could be raised to 
40,000 tons per annum and supplementary supplies 
of nitrates could be produced, if necessary, from atmos- 
pheric nitrogen; but for this again, cheap electric 
power is needed. Salt occurs in abundance and the 
establishment of caustic soda manufacture, preferably 
by an electric process, that would also yield chlorine, 
is a necessary part of our chemical programme. There 
are available in the country, in fair quantity, many 
other raw materials necessary for heavy chemical 
manufacture, in addition to those referred to under 
other heads; among them may be mentioned alum, 
salts, barytes, borax, gypsum, limestone, magnesia, 
phosphates of lime and ochres. The installation of 
plants for the recovery of by-products in coking has 
recently been undertaken, but for the recovery of 
tar and ammonia only. The recovery of benzol and 
related products has so far not been attempted nor has 
anything been done to utilise the tar by re-distillation 
or other chemical treatment. 

"Although India exported raw rubber valued in 191 7- 
1918 at 162 lakhs, rubber manufacture has not been 



APPENDIX 215 

Started in the country and goods to the value of 116 
lakhs were imported in 1917-1918. This industry is 
one of those that are essential in the national interest 
and should be inaugurated, if necessary, by special 
measures. 

"Though textile industries exist on a large scale, 
the range of goods produced is still narrow, and we are 
dependent upon foreign sources for nearly all of our 
miscellaneous textile requirements. In addition to 
these, the ordinary demands of Indian consumers 
necessitate the import of some Rs. 66 crores worth 
of cotton piece-goods, and interference with this 
source of supply has caused serious hardship. Flax 
is not yet grown in appreciable quantities and the 
indigenous species of so-called hemp, though abund- 
antly grown, are not at present used in any organized 
Indian industry. 

Our abihty to produce and to preserve many of 
our foodstuffs in transportable forms or to provide 
receptacles for mineral or vegetable oils depends upon 
the supply of tin plates which India at present imports 
in the absence of local manufactures. 

''Our few paper factories before the war stood on an 
uncertain basis and we are still dependent upon foreign 
manufacture for most of the higher qualities." 

India produces enormous quantities of leather on 
a relatively small scale by modern processes; and the 
village tanner supplies the local needs only, and with 
a very inferior material. To obtain the quantities 
and standards of finished leather which the country 
requires, it will be necessary to stimulate industries 
by the institution of technical training and by the 
experimental work on a considerable scale. 

"Large quantities of vegetable products are exported 
for the manufacture of drugs, dyes and essential oils, 
which in many cases are re-imported into India, 

"The blanks in our industrial catalog are of a kind 
most surprising to one familiar only with the European 
conditions. We have already alluded generally to 
the basic deficiencies in our iron and steel industries 



2l6 APPENDIX 

and have explained how, as a result, the many engineer- 
ing shops in India are mainly devoted to the repair 
or to the manufacture of, hitherto mainly from im- 
ported materials, comparatively simple structures, 
such as roofs, bridges, wagons and tanks. India can 
build a small marine engine and turn out a locomotive 
provided certain essential parts are obtained from 
abroad but she has not a machine to make nails or 
screws, nor can she manufacture some of the essential 
parts of electrical machinery.^ 

''Electrical plant and equipment are still, therefore, 
imported, in spite of the fact that incandescent lamps 
are used by the millions and electric fans by the tens 
of thousands. India relies on foreign supplies of 
steel springs and iron chains and for wire ropes, a 
vital necessity of her mining industry. We have 
already pointed out the absence of any manufacture 
of textile mill accessories. The same may be said 
of the equipment of nearly all industrial concerns. 
The list of deficiencies includes all kinds of machine 
tools, steam engines, boilers and gas and oil engines, 
hydraulic presses and heavy cranes. Simple lathes, 
small sugar mills, small pumps, and a variety of odds 
and ends are made in some shops, but the basis of 
their manufacture and the limited scale of production 
do not enable them to compete with imported goods 
of similar character to the extent of excluding the 
latter. Agriculturists' and planters' tools such as 
ploughs, mamooties, spades, shovels and pickaxes are 
mainly imported as well as the hand tools of improved 
character used in most cottage industries, including 
wood-working tools, healds and reeds, shuttles and 
pickers. Bicycles, motor cycles and motor cars cannot 
at present be made in India though the imports under 
these heads were valued at Rs. 187 lakhs in 1913- 
1914. The manufacture of common glass is carried 
on in various localities, and some works have turned 
out ordinary domestic utensils and bottles of fair 
quality, but no attempt has been made to produce 

1 Italics are oiirs. 



APPENDIX 



217 



plate or sheet glass or indeed any of the harder kinds 
of commercial glass, while optical glass manufacture 
has never even been mooted. The extent of our de- 
pendence on imported glass is evidenced by the fact 
that in 1913-1914 this was valued at Rs. 164 lakhs. 
Porcelain insulators, good enough for low tension 
currents, are manufactured, but India does not pro- 
duce the higher quahties of either porcelain or 
china. . . . 

''The list of industries which, though their products 
are essential alike in peace and war, are lacking in this 
country, is lengthy and almost ominous.^ Until they are 
brought into existence on an adequate scale, Indian 
capitalists will, in times of peace, be deprived of a 
number of profitable enterprises; whilst in the event 
of war which renders the sea transport impossible, 
India's all-important existing industries will be exposed 
to the risk of stoppage, her consumers to great hard- 
ship, and her armed forces to the gravest danger." 

In discussing the part played by Indians of all 
classes in the industrial development of the Country 
the Commission observes: 

*'It is obvious that the great obstacles are the lack 
of even vernacular education and the low standard of 
comfort. The higher grade of worker, the mechani- 
cal artisan, in the absence of adequate education has 
been prevented from attaining a greater degree of 
skill. He finds himself where he is, less by deliberate 
choice than by the accident of his obtaining work at 
some railway or other engineering shop, or by the 
possession of a somewhat more enterprising spirit 
than his fellows. There is at present only very in- 
adequate provision for any form of technical training 
to supplement the experience that he can gain by actual 
work in an engineering shop, while the generally 
admitted need for a more trustworthy and skillful 
type of man is at present met by importing charge- 
men and foremen from abroad." 

* Italics are ours. 



2l8 APPENDIX 

In short, the industrial deficiencies of India are 
directly due to 

(a) lack of education, general, scientific, and 
technical. 

(b) lack of encouragement by the Government 
which has so far deliberately purchased most 
kinds of stores needed for government re- 
quirements from England. 

The agricultural deficiencies are due to the same 
causes plus the poverty of the ryot and his inability 
to secure the capital necessary for improvements on 
reasonable terms of interest. Yet, in spite of this we 
find the Commission laying unwarranted emphasis 
upon the creation of new posts divided into Imperial 
and Provincial branches for Industrial, Agricultural, 
and scientific experts. One should have thought 
that the first recommendation should be the imme- 
diate inauguration of general education throughout the 
country with adequate provision for technical, scientific, 
agricultural and commercial instruction. 
' The industrial development of the country needs 
these things: (i) general education, (2) cheap capital 
(3) skilled labor, (4) protection against improper 
foreign competition. Expert advice and research are 
needed very much, but no amount of research or expert 
advice will advance the cause of industries unless the 
level of general intelligence has been raised and some 
provision made for cheap capital and skilled labor. 
Says the Honorable Malaviya in his separate note: 

"If the industries of India are to develop, and 
Indians to have a fair chance in the competition to 
which they are exposed, it is essential that a system 
of education at least as good as that of Japan should 
be introduced in India. I am at one with my col- 
leagues in urging the fundamental necessity of pro- 
viding primary education for the artisan and laboring 
population. No system of industrial and technical 
education can be reared except on that basis. But 
the artisan and laboring population do not stand apart 



APPENDIX 210 

from the rest of the community; and therefore if 
this sine qua non of industrial efficiency and economic 
progress is to be established it is necessary that pri- 
mary education should be made universal. I agree 
also in urging that drawing and manual training should 
be introduced into primary schools as soon as possible. 
In my opinion, until primary education is made uni- 
versal, if not compulsory, and until drawing is made 
a compulsory subject in all primary schools, the 
foundation of a satisfactory system of industrial and 
technical education will be wanting. Of course 
this will require time. But I think that that is exactly 
why an earnest endeavor should be made in this 
direction without any further avoidable delay." 

In support of his opinion he quotes the following 
pertinent observation of Mr. Samuelson: 

"In conclusion, I have to state my deep conviction 
that the people of India expect and demand of their 
government the design, organization and execution of 
systematic technical education and there is urgent 
need for it to bestir itself, for other nations have already 
sixty years' start of us, and have produced several 
generations of educated workmen. Even if we begin 
to-morrow the technical education of all the youths 
of twelve years of age, who have received sound ele- 
mentary education, it will take seven years before these 
young men can commence the practical business of 
life and then they will form but an insignificant mi- 
nority in an uneducated mass. It will take fifteen 
years before those children who have not yet begun 
to receive an elementary education shall have passed 
from the age of 7 to 21 and represent a completely 
trained generation; and even then they will find less 
than half of their comrades educated. In the race of 
nations, therefore, we shall find it hard to overtake the 
sixty years that we have lost. To-morrow, then let 
us undertake with all our energy oar neglected task; 
the urgency is twofold — a small proportion of our 
youth has received elementary education, but no 
technical education: for that portion let us at once 



220 APPENDIX 

organize technical schools in every small town, tech- 
nical colleges in every large town and a technical 
university in the metropolis. The rest of the rising 
generation has received no education at all, and for 
them let us at once organize elementary education, 
even if compulsory." 

To provide for a new department of experts on a 
lavish scale before making an adequate provision for 
general education is putting the cart before the horse. 
This has been pointed out in a very able article by 
one of our premier scientists (who has taken a leading 
part in the development of Indian industries) pub- 
lished in the Modern Review^ Calcutta, for March, 
1919. 

Says Sir P. C. Roy: 

"We always begin at the wrong end. I should be 
the last person to disparage the necessity for scientific 
research. The simple fact is, however, overlooked 
that our agricultural population, steeped in ignorance 
and illiteracy and owning only small plots and scat- 
tered holdings, are not in a position to take advantage 
of or utiUze the elaborate scientific researches which 
lie entombed in the bulletins and transactions of these 
Institutes. Mr. Mackenna very rightly observes: 
The Famine Commissioners, so long ago as 1880, 
expressed the view that no general advance in the 
agricultural system can be expected until the rural 
population had been so educated as to enable them to 
take a practical interest in agricultural progress and 
reform. These views were confirmed by the Agri- 
cultural Conference of 1888. The most important and 
probably the soundest proposition laid down by the 
Conference was that it was most desirable to extend 
primary education amongst agricultural classes. Such 
small countries as Denmark, Holland and Belgium 
are in a position to send immense supplies of cheese, 
butter, eggs, etc., to England, because the farmers 
there are highly advanced in general enlightenment 
and technical education and are thus in a position 
to profit by the researches of experts. The peasant 



APPENDIX 2 21 

proprietors of France are equally fortunate in this 
respect; over and above the abundant harvest of 
cereals they grow vine and oranges and have been 
highly successful in sericulture; while the silk industry, 
in its very cradle, so to speak, namely Murshidabad 
and Malda, is languishing and is in a moribund con- 
dition. 

''Various forms of cattle plague, e.g., render pest, 
foot and mouth disease, make havoc of our cattle every 
year and the ignorant masses steeped in superstitions, 
look helplessly on and ascribe the visitations to the 
wrath of the Goddess Sitala. It is useless to din 
Pasteur's researches into their ears. As I have said 
before, our Government has the happy knack of be- 
ginning at the wrong end. An ignorant people and 
a costly machinery of scientific experts ill go together. 

"The panacea recommended for the cure and treat- 
ment of all these ills is the foundation or re-organization 
of costly bureaus and Scientific and Technical services, 
the latter with the differentiation of "Imperial" and 
the 'Provincial' Services, which are in reality hot- 
beds for the breeding of racial antipathies and sedition. 
For the recruitment of the Scientific Services the Com- 
missioners coolly propose that not only senior and 
experienced men should be obtained at as early an age 
as possible, preferably not exceeding 25 years. What 
lamentable ignorance the Commissioners betray and 
what poor conception they have of this vital question 
is further evident from what they say: 

"'We should thus secure the University graduate, 
who had done one or perhaps two years' post-graduate 
work whether scientific or practical, but would not 
yet be confirmed in specialization. We assume that 
the requisite degree of specialization will be secured 
by adopting a system whereby study leave will be 
granted at some suitable time after three years, service, 
when a scientific ofiicer should have developed the 
distinct bent." In other words, secure a dark horse 
and wait till he develops a distinct bent! The writer 



222 APPENDIX 

of this article naturally feels a little at home on this 
subject and it is only necessary to cite a few instances 
to illustrate how, under the proposed scheme Indians 
will fare. At the present moment there are four 
young Indian Doctors of Science of British universities, 
three belonging to that of London. Two of them only 
have been able to secure Government appointments, 
but these only temporary, drawing two-thirds of the 
grade pay. One has already given up his post in 
disgust because he could get no assurance that the 
post would be made permanent. In fact, both of 
them have been given distinctly to understand that 
as soon as the war conditions are over, permanent 
incumbents for these posts will be recruited at ''home." 
In filling up the posts of the so-called experts one very 
important factor is overlooked. As a rule, only 
third rate men care to come out to India. The choice 
lies between the best brains of India and the mediocres 
of England and yet the former get but scant consider- 
ation and justice. . . . The creation of so many 
Scientific "Imperial" services means practically so 
many close preserves for Europeans.' " 

In the chapter dealing with Industrial and Tech- 
nical training the Commission observes: 

"The system of education introduced by the Gov- 
ernment was, at the outset, mainly intended to provide 
for the administrative needs of the country and en- 
couraged literary and philosophic studies to the neg- 
lect of those of more practical character. In the 
result it created a disproportionate number of persons 
possessing purely literary education, at a time when 
there was hardly any form of practical education in 
existence. Naturally, the market value of the services 
of persons so educated began eventually to diminish. 
Throughout the nineteenth century the policy of the 
Government was controlled by the doctrine of laissez- 
faire in commercial and industrial matters, and its 
efforts to develop the resources of the country were 
largely limited to the provision of improved methods 



APPENDIX 



22;^ 



of transport and the construction of irrigation works. 
Except in Bombay, the introduction of modern methods 
of manufacture was almost entirely confined to the 
European community. The opportunities for gaining 
experience were not easy for Indians to come by, and 
there was no attempt at technical training for indus- 
tries until nearly the end of the century, and then 
only on an inadequate scale. The non-existence of 
a suitable education to qualify Indians for posts re- 
quiring industrial or technical knowledge was met by 
the importation of men from Europe, who supervised 
and trained illiterate Indian labor in the mills and 
factories that were started. From this class of labor 
it was impossible to obtain the higher type of artisan 
capable of supervisory work." 

After pointing out the lamentable deficiency and 
comparative failure of the half-hearted measures so 
far taken by the Government to provide some kind of 
technical education the Commission makes certain 
recommendations for meeting the needs of the situ- 
ation, which are supplemented by some pertinent 
suggestions made by the Honorable Malaviya in his 
minority report. The aforesaid summary concludes 
with the following paragraph: 

*'To sum up, the Commission finds that India is 
a country rich in raw materials and in industrial 
possibilities, but poor in manufacturing accompHsh- 
ments. The deficiencies in her industrial system are 
such as to render her liable to foreign penetration in 
time of peace and to serious danger in time of war. 
Her labor is ineflScient, but for this reason capable of 
vast improvement. She relies almost entirely on 
foreign sources for foremen and supervisors; and her 
intelligentsia have yet to develop the right tradition 
of industrialism. Her stores of money lie inert and 
idle.^ The necessity of securing the economic safety 
of the country and the inability of the people to secure 
it without the co-operation and stimulation of Govern- 

' Are there any such stores? If so, where? 



224 APPENDIX 

ment impose, therefore, on Government policy of 
energetic intervention in industrial affairs; and to 
discharge the multifarious activities which this policy 
demands, Government must be provided with a suit- 
able industrial equipment in the form of imperial and 
provincial departments of Industries." 



APPENDIX B 



A BRIEF COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF THE 
PRESENT INDIAN CONSTITUTION, THE MON- 
TAGU-CHELMSFORD SCHEME OF REFORMS 
AND THE CONGRESS -LEAGUE REFORM 
PROPOSALS. 



THE PRESENT CONSTITU- 
TION OF INDIA 

Under the Government of India 
Act, 191S (s & 6 Geo. 5, c. 61). 

I. The Secretary of State 
IN Council 

(i) His Majesty's Secretary of 
State for India superintends, 
directs, and controls all acts re- 
lating to the government or 
revenues of India. He is respon- 
sible to Parliament. He or his 
Council has no legislative powers. 

(2) The Council of India consists 
of 10 to 14 members, appointed 
by the Secretary of State for a 
term of seven years; and the 
majority of Council must sanction 
expenditure of revenue and cer- 
tain other specified matters. In 
practice two of the members have 
been Indians since 1907. 

(3) The salaries of the Secretary 
of State, the Under-Secretaries 
and the Ofl&ce establishment are 
paid out of Indian revenues. 

n. The Government of India 

(i) General. — The Governor- 
General of India is appointed by 



the Crown. He has the absolute 
power of adopting, suspending or 
rejecting measures affecting safety, 
tranquillity and interest of India. 

(2) Executive Council. — The Ex- 
ecutive Council consists of five or 
six ordinary members appointed 
by the Crown generally for five 
years, with the Commander-in- 
chief as an extraordinary member. 
Governor-General in Council is 
the supreme autocratic authority 
in India in all administrative 
matters, and it directly adminis- 
ters certain Imperial Departments. 
One member of Council is now an 
Indian. 

(3) Legislative Council. — For 
the purpose of legislation the 
Council consists of all Execu- 
tive members with 60 additional 
members, of whom only 27 are 
elected by specified electorates 
by a method of indirect election. 
There is separate representation 
for Mohammedans. The Gov- 
ernor-General is the President of 
the Council. 

The members of the Legis- 
lative Council can discuss the 
Budget, move resolutions or ask 
questions, but the Executive Gov- 



225 



226 



APPENDIX 



emment is not bound thereby. 
In other words the Legislative 
has no control over the purse or 
the acts of the Executive. 

Every act of the Legislative 
requires the assent of the 
Governor-General, and the Crown 
may also disallow the same. 
Besides in cases of emergency 
the Governor-General has the 
power to promulgate laws in the 
shape of ordinances, without refer- 
ence to the Legislative Council, 
on his own initiative or on the 
recommendation of Provincial 
Governments. These ordinances 
to be in force for six months. 

MONTAGU-CHELMSFORD 
SCHEME OF REFORMS 

I. The Secretary op State 

IN Council 

(i) His Majesty's Secretary of 
State to be retained, but his 
salary to be transferred to British 
Estimates. 

(2 & 3) A Committee is appointed 
to examine and report on the 
present constitution of the Coun- 
cil of India as well as the Office 
establishment. (The report of 
the Committee is not yet made.) 

(4) The House of Commons to 
be asked to appoint a Select 
Committee for Indian affairs. 

(5) Control of Parliament and the 
Secretary of State to be modified. 

II. The Government of India 

(i) General. — The Government 
of India to preserve indisputable 
authority on all matters relating 
to peace, order, and good Govern- 
ment. It is to remain fully 
autocratic as at present. 



A Privy Council to be estab- 
lished in Lidia. 

(2) The Executive Council. — To 
continue as before with maximum 
limit removed, but the Indian 
element is to be increased to two 
members. 

Government to be empowered 
to appoint a limited number of 
members (not necessarily elected) 
of the Legislative Coimcii as 
Under-Secretaries, similar to Par- 
liamentary Under-Secretaries in 
England. 

(3) Legislative Council. — There 
will be two legislative Bodies. 
One to be called Legislative As- 
sembly (with elected majority), 
and the other the Council of 
State (with official majority). 

The Legislative Assembly is to 
consist of 100 members, two-thirds 
of whom would be elected. Of the 
nominated not less than one- 
third should be non-officials. 
President to be nominated by 
the Governor-General. 

The Council of State to consist 
of 50 members, of whom 21 are 
to be elected. The Governor- 
General is to be the President. 

Bills passed by the Assembly 
must also be referred to the 
Council of State, the differences, 
if any, being settled by a joint 
session. But in cases where the 
interests of peace, order and good 
Government, including sound fi- 
nancial administration, are con- 
cerned, Governor-General shall 
have powers to refer a Bill to the 
Council of State and it will become 
law in the form approved by the 
Council of State even though it 
is not acceptable to the Assembly. 

Legislative Assembly and the 
Council of State may discuss the 
Budget, ask questions, and pass 



APPENDIX 



227 



resolutions, but they are not 
binding on the Executive. 

The Governor-General to retain 
his power of assenting to Acts and 
promulgating ordinances on his 
own authority. The Crown may 
disallow any Act. 

The Montagu - Chelmsford 
Scheme proposes periodical (de- 
cennial) Parliamentary inquiries 
to revise the constitution, both 
for the Central and the Provincial 
Governments. 



CONGRESS— LEAGUE RE- 
FORM PROPOSALS 

I. The Secretary of State in 
Council 

(i) The Secretary of State to be 
retained. But his salary to be 
transferred to British Estimates. 

(2) The Coimcil of India be 
abolished. 

(3) There should be two per- 
manent Under-Secretaries, one of 
whom should be an Indian. The 
charges of the Indian OflSce estab- 
lishment should be transferred to 
British Estimates. 

(4) The proposed Select Com- 
mittee of the House of Commons 
is not objected to. 

(5) The Secretary of State for 
India should eventually occupy 
the same position as the Colonial 
Secretary. The control of Parlia- 
ment and Secretary of State be 
modified only with the transfer 
of responsibility of the Govern- 
ment of India to the electorate. 

II. The Government of India 

(i) General. — The Government 
of India shall have undivided 



authority in matters concemmg 
Peace, Tranquillity and Defence 
of the Country; but subject to a 
Statutory Declaration of the rights 
of the people of India as British 
citizens, viz., that all Indians 
are equal before law, equally 
entitled to a Ucence to bear arms 
and to have the freedom of speech, 
writing, and meeting, and also 
the freedom of the Press, and that 
no one be punished or deprived 
of his Uberty except by a sentence 
of a Court of Justice. 

That the principle of Respon- 
sible Government should be ap- 
pUed to the Central Adminis- 
tration by dividing the subjects 
into (i) reserved (2) transferred. 
The reserved subjects to be ad- 
ministered by Government with- 
out popular control. The reserved 
subjects shall be Foreign affairs 
(except relations with Colonies, 
and Dominions), Army, Navy, 
and relations with Indian Ruling 
Princes, as well as matters af- 
fecting public peace, tranquillity, 
defence of the country subject to 
the Declarations of Rights men- 
tioned above. All other subjects 
should be transferred subjects — 
i.e., transferred to the popular 
control exercised by the enlarged 
Legislative Assembly. 

There should be no Privy 
Council. 

(2) Executive Council. — The Ex- 
ecutive Council shall consist partly 
of Ministers, from the Elected 
members of the Legislative Coun- 
cil, and in charge of the trans- 
ferred subjects; and other mem- 
bers nominated by the Govern- 
ment in charge of the reserved 
subjects. When there are two or 
more members in charge of the 
reserved subjects, half the num- 
ber shall be Indians. ^ 



228 



APPENDIX 



3) Legislative Council. — There 
should be no Council of State, 
but only one Legislative Assembly 
composed of 150 members, four- 
fifths of whom should be elected 
directly by the people. The 
Franchise should be as broad as 
possible without distinction of 
sex, but with a proportional and 
communal representation for Mo- 
hammedans as settled at Lucknow. 
The Assembly should have an 
elected President. (The Moslem 
League does not object to the 
Council of State if at least half 
the members thereof would be 
elected). 

The Legislative Assembly should 
have the same measvire of fiscal 
autonomy as Self-Goveming Do- 
minions, and should control the 
Budget, excepting the reserved 
subjects, the allotment for which 
shall be a first charge on the 
Revenues. All Bills must be 
introduced and passed in the 
Assembly. 

Provided that in the case of 
reserved subjects if the Legis- 
lative Assembly does not pass 
measures desired by Government, 
the Governor-General in Council 
may provide for the same by 
regulations. Such regulations will 
remain in force for one year, and 
shall not be renewed unless 40 
per cent (two-fifths of the mem- 
bers) of the Legislative Assembly 
present and voting are in favour 
of them. 

The Governor-General to retain 
his existing power of making 
ordinances and the Governor- 
General in Council the power 
of passing regulations. The Gov- 
ernor-General and the Crown to 
have also power of assent, reser- 
vation or (hsallowance. 

The Congress — League scheme 



objects to periodical Commissions 
for revising the Constitution, and 
asks for a Statutory declaration 
that the transfer of responsibihty 
should be completed in a period 
not exceeding 15 years, when 
India should be placed on a 
footing of equaUty with the other 
self-governing parts of the Empire. 

in. The Provincial Govern- 
ments 

(i) General. — India, including 
Burma, is divided into 14 prov- 
inces, each of which has its own 
Provincial Government. 

By a system of decentralisation, 
revenues are allotted to aU these 
provinces by the Government of 
India. The Provincial Govern- 
ments administer, under the gen- 
eral supervision of the Central 
Government, without being re- 
sponsible to the Local Legislatures 
in any way. 

(2) Executive. — Bombay, Bengal, 
and Madras have each a Governor 
sent from England and three 
(one of whom is, in practice, an 
Indian) Executive Councillors ap- 
pointed by the Crown, with a 
Legislative Council. 

Bihar and Orissa governed by 
a Lieutenant-Governor with Legis- 
lative and Executive Councils; 
United Provinces, Punjab and 
Burma by a Lieutenant-Governor 
with only a Legislative Council; 
Central Provinces and Assam by a 
Chief Commissioner with only a 
Legislative Council, and the re- 
maining by Chief Commissioners 
without any Councils. 

(3) Legislative. — The Provincial 
Legislative Councils enjoy limited 
powers for legislation in the prov- 
inces. The Governor is the Presi- 
dent of the Council. 



APPENDIX 



229 



The elected members of the 
Legislative Council are elected by- 
constituencies formed of Municipal 
and Local Boards, and Landlords 
with a separate constituency for 
Mohammedans. They are in a 
minority except in Bengal, where 
they have at present only a small 
majority. The Legislative Coun- 
cils have no control over the 
Executive or the Budget. 

The Acts of the Provincial 
Legislature must be assented to 
first by the Governor, Lieutenant 
Governor, or the Commissioner 
as the case may be, and then by 
the Governor-General subject al- 
ways to disallowance by the 
Crown. 

Public Services 

Recruitment, examination, and 
other matters relating to Indian 
services are at present under the 
control of the Indian Govern- 
ment and the Secretary of State, 
with no statutory limit for re- 
cruitment in India. 

Local Self-Government 

Half the members of Municipali- 
ties and Local Boards are gener- 
ally elected, but the bodies are 
imder official control. 

III. The Provincial Govern- 
ments 

(i) General. — All Provinces hav- 
ing Legislative Councils at present 
(except Burma) should have a 
Governor with Executive and 
Legislative Councils. A complete 
separation will be made between 
Indian and Provincial Revenues. 
Provincial Governments are to 
have certain powers of taxation 
and borrowing. 
Responsible Government is to 



be introduced in the Provinces by 
a division of departments into 
reserved (for Government) and 
transferred (to popular control) 
subject to a revision after five 
years. (A Committee is appointed 
to settle which subjects should 
be transferred. The report is 
not yet out.) 

(2) The Executive would be a kind 
of Diarchy, consisting of the 
Governor and two members (one 
of whom is to be an Indian) 
who will be in charge of the 
reserved subjects, and respon- 
sible only to Government; and 
a Minister or Ministers, nomi- 
nated by the Governor from the 
elected members of the Council, 
who will be in charge of the 
transferred subjects and respon- 
sible not to the Legislature, but 
to the electors who may not elect 
him next time. There may also 
be additional members without 
Portfolios for the purpose of 
consultation. 

Ministers to have no voice 
in decisions concerning reserved 
subjects or about the supply 
for them in the Budget. 

There will be Under-Secretaries 
and Standing Committees from 
the members of the Legislative 
Councils to assist the Executive. 

(3) Legislative Councils. — These 
would be practically two Provin- 
cial Legislative Bodies: (i) Leg- 
islative CouncU. (2) Grand 
Committee. 

The Legislative Council will 
have a substantial elected 
majority, elected on a broad 
franchise with Governor as Presi- 
dent. (A Commission is ap- 
pointed to inquire into the question 
of franchise and the composition 
of the Council, but the report is 
not yet out.) 



230 



APPENDIX 



The Grand Committee will 
comprise only from 40 to 50 per 
cent of Legislative Council, and 
its members will be partly elected 
by a ballot and partly appointed 
by nomination. 

All Legislation and the Budget 
for transferred subjects only must 
be passed in tiie Legislative 
Councils. 

But when the Governor certifies 
that a biU dealing with reserved 
subjects is essential he may refer 
the BiU to the Grand Committee 
and have it finally passed there. 

The members of the Legislative 
Council can ask questions and 
pass resolutions, but the latter 
are not binding on the Executive, 
except resolutions on the Budget 
for the transferred subjects. 

All Provincial Legislation re- 
quires the assent of the Governor 
and the Governor-General, and is 
also subject to disallowance by His 
Majesty. 

Public Service 

Racial bars should not exist. 
In addition to recruitment in 
England a system of appoint- 
ment to aU pubhc services be 
established in India with an in- 
creasing percentage of recruit- 
ment. In the case of Indian 
Civil Service the percentage should 
be 33 of the superior posts, with 
annual increment of i^ per cent. 

Local Self-Government 

Complete popular control in 
Local Bodies to be established as 
far as possible. 

HI. The Provincial Govern- 
ments 

(i) General. — There should be a 
complete separation of the Provin- 



cial from the Imperial Revenues. 
All Provincial Governments should 
have certain powers of taxation 
and borrowing. 

(2) Executive. — FuU responsible 
Government should be introduced 
into the Provinces. The Execu- 
tive will thus consist of the Gov- 
ernor and Ministers responsible 
to the Legislature. There should 
be no distinction of transferred or 
reserved subjects. 

(3) Legislative. — There should be 
oniy one Legislative Council, 
having four-fifths of its members 
elected on a broad franchise with- 
out distinction of sex, but with 
a proportional and commimal 
representation for the Mohamme- 
dans. The Legislative Council 
should elect its own President, 
and must have control over the 
Budget. AU BUls must be intro- 
duced and passed in this Legis- 
lative CouncU. 

The Governor to retain his 
power of assent, and the Governor- 
General and the Crown the 
power of assent or disaUowance. 

Public Services 

Services should be recruited in 
India in a fixed and progressive 
proportion. The annual recruit- 
ment in India for the Indian 
Civil Service should be 50 per 
cent to start with, and that 
Indians be granted at least 25 
per cent of the Commissions in 
Army and the proportion be 
gradually increased. There should 
be no racial distinctions. 

Local Self-Government 

Mimicipal and Local Bodies 
should be completely under popu- 
lar control. 



APPENDIX C 

REPORTS OF COMMITTEES ON FRANCHISES 
AND DIVISION OF FUNCTIONS 

(London Times May 13, 1919) 

The reports of the two Committees which sat in 
India from early in November to the end of February 
last to fill out the framework of the Montagu-Chelms- 
ford Report published last July were issued last night. 

The Franchise Committee, of which Lord South- 
borough was chairman, recommend a scheme of 
territorial constituencies, urban and rural, the latter 
based on the existing land revenue districts, together 
with communal representation for Mohammedans and 
Sikhs (as contemplated in the original scheme) and 
for Indian Christians, Europeans, and Anglo-Indians: 
and the representation of special interests, including 
commerce and industry. 

The other Committee, of which Mr. R. Feetham 
was chairman, make detailed recommendations as to 
the division of functions between the Government of 
India and the provincial Governments, and also 
between ''reserved" and ''transferred" subjects in 
the provinces. Proposals are made for the modi- 
fication in some important respects (notably in the 
powers conferred on the Governor) of the "diarchial" 
system in the provinces set forth in what is conveniently 
called the "Joint Report." 

As was indicated in The Times on April 5, Lord Southborough's 
Committee have not accepted the appeals addressed to them in the 
interest of woman sufifrage. They found it advocated "rather 
on general grounds than on considerations of practicabiUty." They 
are satisfied that the §Qcial conditions of India would make such 

231 



232 APPENDIX 

a step now premature. They are of opinion, however, that at the 
revision of the constitutions of the councils proposed in the Joint 
Report 10 years after their reconstitution the matter should be 
reconsidered in the light of the experience gained and of social con- 
ditions as they then exist. 

Franchise Qualifications 

The general proposals for the franchise are based upon the prin- 
ciple of residence and the possession of certain property qualifications. 
In addition the enfranchisement of all retired and pensioned officers 
of the Indian Army, whether of commissioned or non-commissioned 
rank, is recommended. This step was universally and strongly 
recommended in the Punjab, and it is to extend to all provinces. 
The property qualification is adapted to local conditions and is 
guided by the principle that the franchise should be as broad as 
possible, consistently with the avoidance of any such inordinate 
extension as might lead to a breakdown of the machinery of election 
through weight of niunbers. The large proportion of illiterate 
voters, in the absence of a literary test, may cause difficulty, but it 
has already been faced successfuUy in municipal elections in India 
by the use of coloured ballot-boxes and other like devices. 

No rigid uniformity of property qualification has been sought, 
but the committee have proposed the same qualification for all 
communities within the same area. A substantially higher propor- 
tion of the urban than of the rural population wiU be enfranchised. 
At present the total number of electors for the provincial councils 
is 33,007, and of these no fewer than 17,448 are Mohammedans, since 
that commxmity enjoys direct representation on an individual 
basis. The munber of voters will be raised under the scheme to 
5,179,000, being 2.34 per cent of the total population in the eight 
provinces, which is nearly 220,000,000. 

The long established administrative unit of the "district" is made 
the territorial area for constituencies but the relatively few cities 
with large populations are to be separately represented. Occa- 
sionally towns are grouped into separate urban constituencies. 
Single-member constituencies are the general rule, but latitude is 
left to the local Governments. Plural voting is to be forbidden, 
but this does not apply to electors in constituencies formed for the 
representation of special interests. 

Special Communities 

In conformity with the recognition of the Joint Report that 
separate Mohammedan representation cannot be abandoned, the 
scheme provides for Mohammedan constituencies. The compact of 
the joint session of the National Congress and the Moslem League 
at Lucknow in December, 1916, is accepted as a guide in allocating 
the proportion of Mohammedan seats. In the Punjab this facility 
is to be exte^d^d ^0 the Sikhs, Beyond this the franjers of the 



APPENDIX 



^33 



Joint Report did not propose to go; but Lord Southborough's 
Committee recommend separate electorates, where the numbers 
justify that course, for Indian Christians, Europeans, and the 
domiciled "Anglo-Indians" — j.g., country-born Europeans and 
Eurasians. It is observed that candidates belonging to these 
communities would have no chance of being elected by general 
constituencies. The hope is expressed that it will be possible "at 
no very distant date to merge all communities into one general 
electorate." 

Other claims for separate electorates are not conceded. Regret 
is expressed that the organized non-Brahmans of the Madras Presi- 
dency refuse to appear before the Committee. It is pointed out that 
there the non-Brahmans (omitting the depressed or "untouchable" 
classes) outnumber the Brahmans by about 22 to one; and on the 
basis of enfranchisement taken in Madras the non-Brahmans would 
be in the proportion of four to one. It is held to be unreasonable 
to adopt the proposed expedient for a community which has an 
overwhelming electoral strength. 

The alternative of reserving a considerable number of seats for 
non-Brahmans in plural member constituencies did not commend 
itself to a section of the non-Brahmans, though evidence went to 
show that such a proposal might be accepted by the Brahmans 
"if it were the price of an enduring peace." It is suggested that his 
Majesty's Government might afford the parties to the controversy 
an opportunity, before the electoral machinery for the Presidency 
is completed, of agreeing upon some solution — e.g., the provision 
of plural member constituencies and of a certain proportion of 
guaranteed non-Brahman seats. 

The separate representation of zamindars and landholders granted 
under the Morley-Minto scheme is extended and provision made for 
university seats. The election by accredited bodies of representatives 
of commerce and industry is also continued and amplified. There is 
to be nomination for the representation of the "depressed classes," 
for in no case was it found possible to provide an electorate on any 
satisfactory system of franchise. Labour is to be represented by 
nomination where the industrial conditions seem likely to give rise 
to labour problems. The majority of the Committee are of opinion 
that dismissal from Government service should constitute a bar to 
candidature if it has taken place in circumstances which, in the 
opmion of the Governor in Council, involve moral turpitude; but 
Lord Southborough, Mr. S. N. Bannerjea, and Mr. Sastri dissent, 
considering it improper to limit the choice of the electorate by a 
disqualification based on the decision of an executive authority. 

The size of the Provincial Legislatures will vary from 53 in Assam 
to 125 in Bengal. The eight Councils will comprise 796 members, 
made up as follows: — 

Elected by general constituencies, 308. 

By communities, 185, 

By landholders, 35, 



234 APPENDIX 

By universities, 8. 

By commercial, industrial, and planting interests, 45. 
The nominated representatives will number 47, and the officials, 
128. 

The "All-india" Body 

For the Indian Legislative Assembly, the Committee propose 
80 elected members, instead of the 68 snggested in the Joint Report. 
Fourteen representatives appointed by nomination and 26 officials 
(including seven ex-officio members) wfll bring up the total, exclusive 
of the Governor-General, to 120, as compared with 68 at present. 
A statement of the manifold difficulties in the way of direct election 
for this All-India body leads to the conclusion that there must be 
indirect election for all general and communal seats by the members 
of the Provincial Legislatures. "We trust that, in progress of time, 
a growing sense of poUtical organization will enable indirect election 
to be superseded by some direct method." 

A scheme for the creation of the "Council of State" on the lines 
of the Joint Report is set forth, on the basis of election thereto by 
non-official members of the Provincial Councils. There would be 
24 elected and 32 ex-officio or nominated members, exclusive of the 
Governor-General. The electors should be left free to choose any 
person qualified to be a member of a Provincial Legislature. 



THE DIVISION OF FUNCTIONS 

The first duty of Mr. Feetham's Committee vi^as to 
consider what were the services to be appropriated to the 
provinces, all others remaining with the Government of 
India. The Committee proceeded on the basis that there 
is to be no such statutory demarcation of powers as to 
leave the validity of Acts passed to be challenged in the 
Courts. In other words, no alteration is proposed in 
the system under which the All-India Legislature as 
regards British India, and each of the Provincial 
Legislatures as regards its own province, have in 
theory concurrent jurisdiction over the whole legisla- 
tive field. 

In framing the lists the Committee have treated as All-India 
subjects certain large general heads, such, for instance, as commerce 
and laws regarding property, but have taken out of these and allotted 
to the provinces important sections — e.g., in the case of the first 
Excise, and in the case of the second laws regarding land tenure. 
Any matter included in the provincial list is to be deemed to be 



APPENDIX 



235 



excluded from any All-India subject of which otherwise it would 
form part. Subjects not expressly included in either list are re- 
garded as All-India subjects, but the Governor-General in Council 
may add to the provincial list "matters of merely local or private 
interest within the province." It is claimed that the scheme has 
been devised on such a basis as to leave the way open for the process 
of development. 

The list of subjects to be transferred to Indian Ministers is on 
the whole more extensive than the suggested list attached to the 
Joint Report. With certain reservations University education is 
to be transferred, as well as primary, secondary, and technical, on 
the ground that the educational system must be regarded as an 
organic whole. But European and Anglo-Indian education, which 
is organized on a separate basis is excluded from the transfer. 

The decision of the functions of the Provincial Government, 
popularly known as diarchy, has been criticized as likely to lead to 
friction, and sometimes to deadlock. To mitigate these difficulties, 
the Committee propose important changes in the relations of the 
Governor with both sections of the Government. It is to be the 
duty of the Governor in Council in the case of reserved departments, 
and of the Governor and Ministers in the case of transferred de- 
partments, to take care that the administration is so conducted as not 
to prejudice or occasion undue interference with the working of any 
department falling in the other category. The Governor has to 
decide whether a particular matter falls within the scope of a re- 
served or a transferred department, and to take care that any order 
given by the Governor-General in Council is complied with by the 
department concerned. 

Governor's Increased Powers 

In the case of disagreement between the Executive Council and 
Ministers as to action which appears to the Governor to affect both 
a reserved and a transferred department, the Governor is to give 
such decision as the interests of good government may seem to 
require, provided that, in so far as circumstances admit, before such 
decision is given the matter should be considered by both sections 
of the Government sitting together. If the Minister remains 
obdurate, it will be for the Governor to dismiss and find another 
Minister. 

If, owing to a vacancy, there is no Minister in charge of a trans- 
ferred department, the Governor will certify that such emergency 
exists and that inunediate action is necessary. On such certificate 
being given, the Governor in Council will have authority to take 
action, subject to the obligation of reporting to the Governor-General 
in Council. In other words there wiU be re-entry for a temporary 
and limited purpose during an interregnum. This is a considerable 
departure from the proposal of the Joint Report that Ministers shall 
hold office for the lifetime of the Legislative Council. The power 
of the Governor to dismiss a Minister, says the report, "seems 



256 APPENDIX 

essential if deadlocks are to be avoided." The over-ruling of a 
minister will depend in the last resort on the Governor's personal 
judgment of the situation. 

Finance 

The Committee felt themselves precluded from considermg any 
modification of the proposals of the Joint Report for the separation 
of the finances of the Government of India and of Provincial Govern- 
ments. No opinion is expressed on memoranda received at a late 
stage from Sir James Meston making proposals for substantial de- 
parture from the plan of dealing with provincial finance set forth 
in the Joint Report. 

It may be recalled that Mr. Montagu and Lord Chelmsford pro- 
posed that, if the residue of the provincial revenues is not sufficient, 
it should be open to Ministers to suggest fresh taxation. The 
Committee take the view that when any new provincial tax or any 
proposed addition to an existing tax requires legislation to give effect 
to it, the decision whether that legislation should be undertaken 
must rest with the Governor and Ministers. Since the whole balance 
of the revenues of the province will be at the disposal of the Ministers 
for the administration of the transferred departments, the Committee 
consider that when an existing tax cannot be reduced or remitted 
without legislation, the decision whether legislation should be under- 
taken must also rest with the Governor and Ministers. To that 
extent taxation for provincial purposes should be regarded as a 
transferred subject. 

The assessment or collection of the tax would be reserved or 
transferred, according as the agency employed belonged to a re- 
served or to a transferred department. The view is also taken 
that, when alterations in taxation can be effected without any change 
in the law, the decision whether any alteration should in fact be made 
must be recognized as resting with the Governor in Council if the 
department is reserved, and with the Governor and Ministers if 
it is transferred. 

In respect to the powers of borrowing on the sole credit of pro- 
vincial revenues which are to be conferred, the Committee propose 
that, if after joint deliberation there is a difference of opinion be- 
tween the Executive Coimcil and the Ministers, the final decision 
whether a loan should be raised and as to the amoimt of the loan 
must rest with the Governor. 

The Public Services 

Detailed proposals are made in relation to the public services, 
to be classified as Indian (All-India), provincial and subordinate, 
No service is to be included in the first of these categories without 
the sanction of the Secretary of State, while the demarcation be- 
tween the provincial and subordinate services is to be left to the 
provincial Governments. 



APPENDIX 



237 



General approval Is given to a scheme prepared by the Govern- 
ment of India providing that legislation should be undertaken in 
Parliament to declare the tenure and provide for the classification 
of the public service. It should secure the pensions of the All- 
India services, and should empower the Secretary of State to make 
rules for their conduct and rights and liabilities, and to fix their 
pay and regulate their allowances. Similar legislation should be 
passed by the Government of India in respect to the provincial 
services, and to empower the provincial Governments to make rules 
for the subordinate services. The Committee does not express any 
opinion on the proposal of the Government of India to set up a 
statutory Public Service Commission on lines somewhat wider than 
those of the Civil Commission in Great Britain. 

Among the clauses suggested for insertion in the instructions for 
each provincial Governor is one enjoining him to "protect all mem- 
bers of the public services in the legitimate exercise of their functions 
and enjoyment of all recognized rights and privileges." 

The instructions are to charge him with the duty of safeguarding 
the legitimate interests of the Anglo-Indian or domiciled community, 
and " to take care that no change in educational policy, afi^ecting 
adversely Government assistance afforded to existing institutions 
maintained or controlled by religious bodies, is adopted without due 
consideration." The Governor is also to be instructed that he "shall 
not sanction the grant of monopolies or special privileges to private 
imdertakings which are inconsistent with the public interest, nor 
shall he permit any unfair discrimination in matters affecting com- 
mercial or industrial interests." 



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